The Unfolded Memories
by fui
Summary: Itachi marred naruto in his past, and kyuubi seals those memories away for Naruto's benefit. Years later,those memories unfolds. How will Sasuke react to it? And how will they deal with Itachi and his new ideal of Uchiha clan?
1. Chapter 1

The Unfolded Memories

Chapter 1

Author: Fui  
Editor: AnN  
Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine  
Warnings: yaoi  
Note: Hehe we had some problems so we decided to reedit the first chapter;p

Naruto sleepily looked at his surroundings. He was just awakened a moment ago, only to realize that he was at an unfamiliar place. He rose from his sleeping position and found himself on a large bed, strangely crimson in color, with equally elegant blood-red drapery hanging from the top of the old-fashioned bed. He looked to his right side then, and immediately rewarded with breathtaking view of full moon through the dark colored window. As he tried to move, he suddenly aware that he was naked; he could feel the soft red silk gently caressed his sensitive skin as he moved. The circumstance he was in was enough to make him confused, let alone think logically.

His head throbbed badly as he tried to remember the previous happenings. All he could remember was Sasuke. The Uchiha had come at him, tackled him down with his taijutsu skill, and tried to kill him by putting a thick cloth over his mouth. He couldn't remember a thing after that. Naruto started to make his way down the bed. He scanned the room carefully to find his clothes, realizing that his blatant nakedness would bring nothing but further trouble. He found no trace of his clothes, not even on the floor, bed or the carved mahogany table beside it. His eyes then landed on a black cloth rested on a chair next to the door. It was a bit too far for his taste, but it's better than nothing.

Naruto quickly hopped down, shivering slightly when his bare feet touched the cold granite floor. As he was making his few first steps slowly, his ear picked up the sound of another's footsteps came closer to the door. Reflexively he hid himself on the far side of the immense bed, shielding himself from the door. The door was opened slowly then, the unpleasant sound of rusty steel contacted with his ear, and Naruto couldn't help but hid himself better. The light sound of footsteps came nearer. The blue-eyed boy could guess easily that the new guest was a ninja, but he didn't bother to hide his presence from the boy.

"Naruto?" came the smooth, silk-like voice.

_I know that voice._

Naruto perked his blond head from behind the red sheet. He adjusted his eyes to the newcomer difficultly, as the room was quite dark, but he could easily recognize the figure from his spiky hair and familiar-shaped shirt.

"Sasuke?"

The figure stepped closer, allowing the moonlight to bath him in its luminous light, revealing a slender, dark-haired boy who was nearly looked at him with predatory gleam in his dark eyes. Naruto looked back at him in confusion. Something seemed off, but he couldn't find what exactly was wrong in the first place. He reached out his hand to his friend, and at once Sasuke caught it, warmed Naruto's smaller fingers in his hands. Easily Sasuke half-pulled his teammates, until Naruto was settled back on the bed. Naruto was blushing madly, but he was still captivated by this new look on Sasuke, as he never saw the raven-haired teen's eyes focused solely on him like this. Slowly, the dark depthless pool on Sasuke's eyes faded, replaced with his three-wheeled sharingan.

"Sasuke, what are you—"

It's too late. In a blink of an eye, he had the blonde in his arms, encircled him with his powerful arms, and devoured his lips in such a fiery kiss. Naruto was extremely shocked, but as he saw those sharingan beneath the half-closed eyes, he's lost it. He unlocked his lips obediently, allowing Sasuke's tongue explored the depth of his cavern, and fully felt the exquisite pleasure the other boy brought with his skillful tongue. Suddenly he became aware of something. Something which is very wrong, as he shouldn't be here in the first place, let alone with Sasuke, kissing like a pair of passionate lovers on a bed. But this was something more wrong than that. Quickly he pushed Sasuke with all his might, sending him tumbled backwards, as he fought hard to regain his composure.

Sasuke looked at him with annoyance, as he always had…and somehow, amusement?

Naruto pointed a finger at him and shouted harshly. "Who the hell are you! You're not Sasuke!"

Sasuke didn't answer. He still looked at Naruto as if he was stunned by his sudden actions. But Naruto knew better…

"Answer me!"

Sasuke smiled now. Naruto shivered slightly at his friend's smile. He has seen Sasuke's smile before, of course. But this smile…

"This must be some kind of genjutsu! Show me your true face!"

Swiftly, Sasuke moved. Before Naruto could react, Sasuke had him pinned on the bed, held both of his wrists in his right hand and held Naruto's jaw with his other hand. Naruto tried to move, he tried to free his hands, move his legs with no avail. Sasuke was stronger; he knew that. But to have him pinned like this was unlikely him…

Sasuke brushed his lips gently over Naruto's. Still smiling, he even put greater pressure on Naruto's wrists, made him cringed with pain. He breathed into Naruto's ear seductively then…

"What are you talking about, Naruto? How can you say that I'm not Sasuke?"

Naruto was taken aback by his questions. He blushed like a tomato once again, and stammered for an answer.

"Ah… I…"

"I see." Sasuke interrupted quickly. He kissed Naruto again, putting up his skill for real that even the unwilling Naruto was forced to accept the kiss with pleasure. Once again he explored the youth's mouth, warming his cavern and tantalizing his tongue with his own. Both of them ended their kiss a moment later, with Naruto panting for air and blushing as if he was going to explode. Sasuke was still as calm as ever. "Of course, Naruto kun. I won't be too pleased if my kiss is the same as my brother's."

Naruto looked at his companion with fear; this time fully realized whom he was dealing with.

"Itachi."

'Sasuke' smiled. He moved his hand to caress Naruto between his thighs, moving quickly with his original plan. The caress itself was slow and torturous; 'Sasuke' lightly teased him here and there, and purposely avoided more sensitive areas. Naruto squirmed, torn between accepting and rejecting the sensuous touch that 'Sasuke' was offered. Naruto's eyes never left his; those luminous blue orbs locking 'Sasuke's' own dark eyes. Certainly, he never failed to realize the sinister smile that was plastered on Sasuke's face. He was quite pleased to see the boy beneath him struggled uselessly.

"Please don't…"

"Don't?" 'Sasuke' asked softly, as he brushed over Naruto's shaft lightly.

"Ah…"

"Don't…what?" he asked again, this time 'accidentally' brushed his balls.

"Ahh…Sa…"

Naruto couldn't think. 'Sasuke' was all he needed so badly right now, no matter what. He didn't seem to know what's wrong with him. The playfully sensual touch that the other man inflicted upon him was more than enough to thrown him over the edge of sanity. 'Sasuke' easily succumbed to Naruto's every wish. He bended over, slowly took Naruto's arousal into his mouth. Naruto moaned, with his hands unconsciously he forced 'Sasuke' to take him deeper. The other man smiled, this game was beginning to lead where he wanted it most. The pressure was built slowly, and right before the quivering blonde was about to come, 'Sasuke' stopped his ministrations and grabbed the base of his manhood.

"Not yet." He said softly. Naruto's mind wasn't properly working; he couldn't comprehend what 'Sasuke' was going to do.

Slowly, 'Sasuke' took his wardrobe off. The blue shirt with the proud Uchiha clan's symbol and the white shorts were tossed carelessly. Soon, they were completely naked, skin brushing against skin. 'Sasuke' easily took Naruto into his hold, and once again devoured him in a breathtaking kiss. Naruto disengaged himself from the imposter roughly.

"Don't look like him."

'Sasuke' looked at him with some sort of sick amusement.

"Why can't I? Isn't this your wish?"

"No!" Naruto shouted. Then he lowered his head again. He loved Sasuke; the Uchiha heir has always had a special place in his heart. Therefore, he didn't want Itachi to ruin that simple hope he had, a hope that Sasuke would accept his feeling someday.

"Sasuke… is special…" he said softly.

"Is it so?" 'Sasuke' raised an eyebrow, then his smirk widens. "It's okay, Naruto kun. My brother might be special for you, but I'm special for your other half."

Naruto's baby blue eyes widened at that statement. "What do you mean?"

"Kyuubi."

Naruto gasped. 'Sasuke' caressed his whiskers gently now, and he could feel a strange sensation swelled up in his stomach. A nice sensation as if something deep within him tried to wake up and respond the touch.

"Don't touch me!" Naruto hissed. 'Sasuke's' touch has stirred something deep within him; he knew perfectly what it was and didn't want to make it worse than it was now. 'Sasuke' merely smiled; with his alluring deep voice he called the name once again…

"Kyuubi."

Once again, Naruto hissed fearfully. Within the moonlight's shadow, he could see a gleam of red which shone in the blond boy's eyes. And he couldn't repress a grin…

"Kyuubi needs her alpha male, Naruto kun. Don't deny it."

"Alpha?"

He took his lips for another kiss. Deep inside of Naruto, Kyuubi let out a groan of satisfaction as she seemed to recognize the Uchiha…

-,-'-,-'-,-'-

"Sasuke! Sasuke, wake up! You're gonna be late for mission!"

There's no response, the black-haired Uchiha still sleeps so soundly, completely ignoring Naruto's attempt to shake him from his peaceful slumber. Naruto looks at him closely; the tip of his fingers carefully traces the contour of his face: his perfect nose, his high cheekbones, even his lovely lips. Suddenly, he is pulled by powerful arms towards the beautiful youth beneath him, as Sasuke's eyes flutter open slowly and he captures his lips in a kiss…

"Dobe…"

"Sasuke, you're awake."

Sasuke sighs. He lets himself up then, smoothing his spiky hair with his fingers. "Even before you woke up, usuratonkachi."

"Why don't you wake me then, teme? Now we're both late!" Naruto practically screams in his ears. Sasuke flinches. He slowly gets off from the bed, reaching for his towel and heads to the bathroom. Naruto just stares at him dumbly, watching his every single move with calculating gaze. Well, it seems that Sasuke takes too much towel…

"I suggest we take as less time as it's possible to prepare; you won't help by sulking around there, Naruto."

"Eh?"

Sasuke's patience is wearing thin. He starts to take off his clothes in front of the bathroom door, presenting Naruto his well-built back. He looks at him then. "I believe your brain hasn't melted yet, right? Do I have to tell you what to do?"

Naruto seems get a clue. He shakes his head slowly and said with apparent blush in his cheek, "No, you don't have to…"

Around an hour later both of them quickly stumbling out of Naruto's apartment. Sasuke still fights hard with his shuriken sets, which seems to refuse to be arranged into its pocket. On the other hand, Naruto, as clumsy as he can be, still fumbling with his pants while yelling loudly…

"Teme! Why do I have to listen to you? We're late!"

Sasuke looks at him with good humor in his eyes.

"I don't know, perhaps you really had a thing with slavery. You followed my suggestion consciously, and I may add… with equal fervor."

Naruto's face reddens. He eyes his partner hatefully, as he knows he is the reason behind this whole morning mess. He quickly makes a turn to leave the apartment by jumping from rooftops, when suddenly next door apartment is swiftly opened, successfully collides the hard wood with his face.

"Ow!"

Naruto curses with incoherent voice then; he feels as if his skull is being split open. Sasuke seems surprised. He is about to help his partner, when suddenly a child emerges from behind the door. She looks at them quietly.

"Sorry, sir. I didn't mean to…" She says in such a lovely voice, conceals her face with her long straight black tresses. The girl holds a round mirror in her hands; something which makes the Uchiha shivers. He cannot help himself to think that he had seen that mirror from somewhere.

"Hits hoogay, don woree about it…"

"He means, 'it's okay, don't worry about it.'" Sasuke simply says, as he helps Naruto.

"I ken say dat myself… temee…"

Sasuke says nothing. He stares at the young girl, mesmerizes by her beautiful long hair and brilliant blue eyes."Are we neighbors?" Naruto asks, somehow has gained his voice back.

"Yes." She answers. A loud crash comes from inside the apartment; makes both Sasuke and Naruto turn curious and try to peek inside. Sasuke frowns as he manages to take a quick glimpse at its insides; there's a young boy runs frantically with piles of books in his hands. It's kind of reminds him of someone.

"If you need anything," Naruto says nervously while scratching his head. "I'm Naruto, your next door neighbors."

"Thank you," she replies politely. Another loud crash echoes within the walls, she turns her head to see. "I haven't cleaned up yet, and I must help before my twin brother destroys everything. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too."

The girl smiles, then she disappear into the apartment. Naruto is still standing outside the door like a fool, before Sasuke grabs his hands to go for their mission.

-,-'-,-'-,-'-

The apartment is all quiet and clean. Mass of furniture and decoration has been moved neatly, some pictures decorate the empty walls nicely, along with nicely-smelled food being prepared and everything seems perfect. A young boy is sitting on the sofa, aimlessly wandering every channel on TV with his remote. Nothing seems to interest him. He keeps switching channels through the remote in his left hand, while his other hand is busy flipping over a magazine and his eyes alternating between both. Suddenly he stands up, grabs the magazine and turns off the TV, and heads to the small kitchen counter.

"Arashi," he calls. "Is the food finished yet? I'm hungry."

A girl, similar to the boy with long black hair and blue eyes, answer him while stirring a pot. "Just wait."

"I can't wait." He pouts cutely, grabs a spoon and helps himself with a bowl of broth on the table. As the spoon touches his lips, he makes a face; looking at the broth suspiciously as if something might sprout out from there. "Hey, you didn't add something weird here, did you?"

The girl smiles. "Not that I know of. Why should I harm my twin, in any way?"

"I have no idea. I just have a hunch that you will."

"You and that hunch of yours." She grabs the pot and pours some of its content into a small bowl, and presents it to the hungry boy. "It's terrible."

"Well," he begins, taking a sip of the newly-prepared hot tomato soup. "It saved us countless time, didn't it? You remember when we--"

The doorbell rings just before the boy can finish his sentence. While yelling loudly 'I'll get it', he stands on his feet and runs to the door. He opens it then to reveal another young boy, apparently around three years older than himself. The other youth dusts his clothes off, pets his head and goes straight inside without saying a word. He follows him eagerly, his eyes lock on the thick bundle that he brings.

"What's that?"

"A present for you and Arashi. Have you behaved nicely, Sora?"

The boy jumps up and down in his spot. "That's cool, Aniki. What is it? Some kunais? Or maybe shurikens? Or it might be a scroll?"

"You didn't answer my question." He replies, while seeing his younger sister prepares another bowl of tomato soup and some bread. The smell alone is enough to make his mouth water. He immediately seats himself and enjoys both tomato soup and bread, but he doesn't touch the broth.

"Right!" Sora jumps and sits next to his older brother. "I did it well."

Arashi smiles. It's always amazing to think how different Sora and herself. She always manages to look calm in every situation, while Sora is just plainly energetic. Their older brother, Tooya, is an exact copy of their father. From the looks until his brilliance is simply the same.

"Now, what's in there?" Sora insists. Tooya has put the bundle on the kitchen counter, and it seems that he doesn't want to open it yet. Sora waits and waits, but it seems that he doesn't have enough patience as well. "If you don't want to say it, I'll peek!"

Chakra begins to arise from the small boy; the color of brilliant blue fills the air. Yuuto turns his head slightly, observes his little brother's progress. He smiles when he sees Sora eyes change.

"Okay, that's enough. It's used kunais, we still can use it and some chrysanthemums for your sister."

"I know it. You're the best, Tooya!"

"Hn."

A sprouting voice comes from the bowl of broth surprise them. There is a small plant grows on the broth, absorbing fluids and minerals from the broth as if it's a soil. It has two small green leaves, and from the way it looks it will likely grow into a full-grown plant in an hour or two if it's still attached to the broth. Arashi calmly takes the bowl of broth and walks away, leaving her brothers.

"You said you didn't put anything weird there." Sora states.

"This plant is harmless." She answers lightly, as she's still admiring the little plant. "If you eat it, it will die immediately and be a useful protein for your body. After all, it's the last ingredients I need for charka-restoring potion."

With that, she disappears into their room. Sora looks at his brother, who is still eating the delicious tomato soup. He carefully takes his own share of soup and sniffs it suspiciously.

"Are you sure it's safe?" he asks Tooya.

"Trust me." He takes another piece of bread. Sora also begins to eat his soup.

"Why do you think she grows it on a broth anyway?"

Tooya doesn't look at him. His eyes catch a glimpse of several ninjas patrolling just outside their apartment from the window. He quickly finishes his meal, and prepares to go again. "It might be an instruction in the book. I'll go out for a while. Why don't you go practicing that jutsu in the forest?"

"I think I will. Are you going to be back before night?"

"Hn."

With that Tooya leaves in a blur, leaving his younger brother eating his meal in silence.

-,-'-,-'-,-'-

"You're late!" Tsunade comments from behind her pile of files and books and she spots the two young man enter her chamber. Both Sasuke and Naruto stand before the Godaime in their Anbu uniform, ready to take any missions they are assigned to. Sasuke steps forward while putting his mask over his face.

"I'm sorry for being so late, Godaime sama."

"I forgive you for now. Anyway, we have an emergency report here." She hands over a scroll to her Anbu Captain. "It's not a big deal but I think you might want to take a look."

Sasuke opens the scroll and quickly scans its content. His delicate brows frown when he realizes what the assigned mission is about. "Hokage sama, surely it shouldn't be my concern, is it? We, Anbu, aren't supposed to do trivial assignment like this."

"I'm sure you're not." The Godaime says without concern.

"What is it?" Naruto asks, trying to look at the scroll.

"It's nothing. Someone stole a water-based ninjutsu scroll from the library."

Naruto shrieks in distaste. "Tsunade bachan, I want a more challenging mission! Not a pesky one like this."

Tsunade sighs. "You'll get it brat! Now get out, this mission is solely for Sasuke!"

Naruto pouts but he obediently walks out of Hokage's office and slams the door shut behind him. Still his shouting can be heard from distance.

"I don't understand, Hokage sama."

"I don't either, Uchiha. This is a simple thievery act, and the stolen scroll is not that important. Well, not that it's unimportant, but the rumor of the thief has caught my attention."

"Rumor?"

"Indeed. The guards say the last thing that they saw before darkness was a pair of sharingan eyes."

-,-'-,-'-,-'-

Three days later…

The hot atmosphere of daytime apparently doesn't disturb Naruto to do his mission. Tsunade has cleverly sent him away from Sasuke, put him in another group of Anbu. He's supposed to retrieve a document from Lightning Country, which might take weeks to do. It gives Sasuke all the time he needs to gather necessary information. Still he feels uneasy about it. And it's not because his brother might be right under his nose, somewhere in Konoha. Itachi is a master of disguise, although from their last encounter, it seems that Itachi couldn't be more enthusiastic about walking around Konoha in his Akatsuki attire. With his blatant looks, somehow Sasuke wonders how Itachi can make it safely inside Konoha. Neverheless, it's Itachi after all.

He spots several young ladies chattering in front of a nicely decorated sweet shop. Sasuke walks casually towards them, as he has no intentions towards women whatsoever, and listening to their conversation is even a less entertaining option. Apparently, curiosity kills the cat.

"He's so cute." He hears one of them says. "What a pair of beautiful dark eyes he possesses."

Sasuke cannot care about this. Probably, as usual the girls just talking about him again. He better moves on.

"And he's nice. A very skilled young shinobi."

"You're right." The other says, a girl with Chuunin uniform. "Yesterday he just asked me to do a Doton technique, and he can practice it immediately."

Well, it's not him then. Much better, it's time for Konoha girls to have another idol apart from himself and Neji, so to speak. It's getting very tiring sometimes to have a stalker wherever you go, and both of them are married!

"Can he do it well?"

"Not perfect, but it's enough. Only one time I showed it to him in normal speed, and he can already memorize the seals. But he said he couldn't be at the academy, he has to learn by nature."

"Learn by nature? You mean no teacher is allowed?"

"Seems so. Too bad, such a cute kid and he's all alone."

Sasuke raised his eyebrows slightly. 'To learn by nature'… he had heard that phrase well a long time ago. His memories flutters back into his childhood, a time when both Itachi and himself were brothers.

_"Aniki?"_

_"What is it?"_

_Sasuke fidgeted with his small fingers while facing his big brother. Their father was just getting angry with Itachi, such a rare thing that was. Apparently Itachi had skipped his lesson at school, leaving a bunshin in his place and tailing a group of Anbu while they're patrolling. Those Anbu had never realized the Uchiha, but unfortunately during the practice session the school teacher had hit the bunshin square on its head and made it disappear. Uchiha Fugaku had been furious over the fact that he often left his Kage Bunshin at school and played truant. He seemed to forget the fact that even tough his brother was often absent; he was still the best at the Academy._

_"Why do you skip school?"_

_Itachi looked at his little brother. With a simple smile he said, "Because school is boring."_

_"I know it is," Sasuke replied. "But it's not a right thing to do."_

_"This world is heavenly large, Sasuke. There are many things out there." Itachi explained, suddenly Sasuke wondered whether his brother would be a pleasant company for a conversation this time. "Academy is just a tiny pebble."_

_"Tiny pebble?"_

_"Nothing more. Tell me otouto, is there a better way to learn a good stealth other than spying experts without being known?"_

_Sasuke considered this seriously. At the Academy the students were usually practicing stealth with their friends, and he couldn't see it as a challenge._

_"No."_

_"Being with Anbu had numerous advantages, as I have seen. I can learn every aspect of ninja skills much more than being in the Academy. With sharingan it's possible to copy many jutsu that one could only dream."_

_"Is that why you do that?"_

_"We have to learn by nature, Sasuke. That way our potential may flare greatly."_

If he hasn't known any better, he will think that Itachi has somehow passed his knowledge and way of living into someone else. But this is Itachi that he's thinking about, and he knows he won't do anything like that. He's too selfish for his own good.

"Aniki." Sasuke muses to himself. Suddenly his eyes pick a black blur moves quickly towards the group of girls. When it stops, it reveals a young boy around the age of 10 wearing a pair of white short and a black shirt. Sasuke looks at him in awe; the kid is so young, yet he's possessed the speed of a real shinobi. He almost feels like he sees himself in the past. Him, and someone else…

"Tooya kun." One of the girls greets the boy excitedly. The boy gives her his sweetest smile, which in Sasuke's opinion, could've turned their world upside down if only the boy were a bit older.

"Ohayo, Mizumori san." He replies politely. "I wonder if you could help me today."

"Anything, Tooya kun." She smiles. "But you have to give your big sister here a hug."

"My pleasure, Mizumori san." He takes out a small vial from his pocket. "I wonder if you know what this is."

Mizumori takes the small vial from Tooya's hand and examines it. It's a small bottles filled with crimson liquid, not quite sticky but it seems abnormally dangerous. He opens the bottle and wrinkles her nose when the strong smell of the liquid hits her nose.

"I don't know what this is," she gives the vial back. "I'm sorry, Tooya kun. I cannot help."

"It's okay…" he replies while retrieving the bottle back.

"I know what that is." Sasuke says. He walks towards them, his face completely unseen behind his white Anbu mask. With one swift movement, he snatches the vial and holds the clear liquid in his hand. "I wonder how can you posses this thing."

The young boy seems surprised, but he quickly regains his composition. He looks at Sasuke's ceramic mask bravely.

"Just a coincidence."

Sasuke smiles secretly. The boy apparently has enough bravery to lie through his teeth like that. But he knows better.

"A nice coincidence indeed." Sasuke replies, cruelty is quite clear in his voice. "Don't you think it's impolite to lie like that? Especially to your elders?"

"I can't consider it's impolite, sir." Tooya says carefully, preparing for a fight in advance. Somehow he feels the Anbu's presence is disturbing him greatly. "Mostly when I can say that you're not an elder."

"I'm not now, am I?" Sasuke also prepares himself. He can see clearly that this kid is going to attack soon.

"Certainly." With that Tooya releases five shurikens, which he has hidden quite cleverly towards Sasuke. But as expected of an Anbu Captain, it's meaningless. He can dodge it easily. Sasuke runs after the young boy as he spots him goes into the forest.

-,-'-,-'-,-'-

The boy hasn't gone too far into the forest, Sasuke can easily tell that. And it's unlikely that he can hide well in the forest, no matter how good he is. The Anbu Captain is more experienced than him, and that boy is nowhere near his level. Sasuke conceals his charka signature completely, effectively hindering Tooya's ability to detect him. That is, if Tooya indeed can track the Uchiha in any way. As unskilled as the kid might be, he isn't concealing his charka at all. Sasuke supposes it's because he doesn't know how to do it, and he cannot help a small smile from escaping his lips. It's going to be fun to hunt the naughty boy.

Sasuke leaps from a tall oak tree gracefully and hides himself behind a thick trunk. He can see the boy is crouching behind bushes with kunai in his hands. From where he stands, he can see him trembling slightly…

"Come out now," Sasuke says evenly, his voice echoes in the deep forest with charka. "Quit playing games, you'll only hurt yourself."

There is no reply for his demand. Sasuke can see that the boy is a bit startled and starts to look for his whereabouts. It's no use of course, since Sasuke expertly hides himself. He waits for another good one minute before his patience has finally gotten on his nerves and he leaps towards an open space right in front of the boy's hiding place. Tooya's eyes widens, he hasn't expected his enemy, an Anbu nonetheless, to charge him head on like that. Swiftly Sasuke moves right in front of the boy and performs a simple spell to make the young boy falls asleep. And he does. In no time he collapses into Sasuke's waiting arms.

'He's familiar.' The Uchiha thinks as he brushes stray of hair out of the boy's forehead. Sasuke looks as his face better, and wonders why the boy's dark eyes and hair mesmerizes him so. 'I'd better take him home. It's just too ugly to take him to headquarter. Even if he's a thief.'

With that he goes home with the boy in his arms, not knowing exactly what to do.

End of Chapter 1

Please reviews

AnN's note: Thanks for the lovely reviews:)


	2. Chapter 2

The Unfolded Memories

Chapter 2

Author: Fui  
Editor: AnN  
Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine  
Warnings: yaoi

"This is stupid!" Naruto said with his mouth full of rice. Tsunade had requested him to retrieve a document from Lightning Country, and since the relationship between Fire and Lightning can't be considered friendly this mission might take weeks. It'll require lots of stealth practice.

"Naruto, it won't help to curse like that!" Kiba answered. He takes another share of freshly toasted sausages. "Nothing's going to happen."

Naruto looked at him in annoyance. "Shut up!"

"Geez, you might be angry that Sasuke couldn't come with you. But look at the bright side. It can't be that fun to be with the Captain day and night."

"Oh, I'm sure it's fun. Especially the night part." One of the team's members spoke up and the others giggled, while Naruto turned into tomato. Now, he couldn't retort that remark, could he? Not since it's true anyway. Nevertheless, he feels stupid to have to wander around like this, while Sasuke tries to solve the thievery, which can be far more dangerous than other mission. It's just his feeling, but Naruto cannot help himself from thinking that his feeling might be true, in some way.

-,-'-,-'-,-'-

Tooya opens his eyes with difficulty, he feels extremely sleepy and the warm bed cannot be possibly more alluring at this time. He groans and tries to lift himself up, fighting the urge to just fall asleep again. With his hands supporting him, he carefully sits himself and examines his surrounding as he has never seen it before. Yet, he feels familiar with it. The unique smell reminds him that this room probably hasn't been used in such a long time. There's almost nothing there, save for a cupboard, bed and small table along with its chair near the door. The door itself seems locked. The sound of a key unlocking it only confirms his thought. There's a heavy, shrieked voice as the door is opened. To his surprise, the Anbu that he has fought earlier steps in with a glass of water in his hand.

"You're awake." The Anbu states with his silk-like voice. He puts the water on a short wooden table near the door. Tooya says nothing as the other man steps closer to the bed. However, he is pretty surprised when a pale hand reaches his dark hair.

"Do you want to kill me?" he asks. The Anbu looks thoughtful for a while, as he studies Tooya's features. Suddenly, Tooya feels the Anbu's strong, calloused hand caresses him. The caress itself is so soft that it's almost nothing more than a ghostly touch.

"I'll plan something more interesting other than killing you." The man gives him a monotonous reply. Then he walks to the door, pauses by the table just to say, "You may drink the water if you want to. However, don't try to leave this room. It's shielded. You may try to break the shield, but I won't guarantee your safety."

With that, Tooya is left alone again. He somehow feels like he doesn't want to go out, even tough the door is unlocked this time.

Sasuke half runs into his own room, which is quite far from the place where he keeps the boy. He opens the door with great haste, bolts into his room and locks it firmly. He opens his Anbu mask then, and put it on the bed. He wonders why he decided to wear the mask at the first place. Now that he has started using it, he may as well use it until the end. Sighs heavily, he walks to his refrigerator which he keeps neatly in his room. He takes out a sandwich and places it on a plate. Sasuke puts his mask back on then, and goes back to where he keeps the young boy.

'He feels familiar.' Sasuke thinks as he walks with a plate of sandwich in his hand. He recalls the time when he caressed those silky dark hair and the boy looks at him with dark eyes equal to his own. His fingers still remember the way those beautiful strands slip through them. It's something quite far, yet near. Almost as if it's a nearly forgotten memory; it almost vanishes but its traces are still there, waiting to be recalled again. And Sasuke yearns to learn it back. His mind is floating with thoughts as he steps closer towards the room. He calls back those moments when that young boy fainted in his arms. It has been a weird feeling back then, a strange sensation which made him unable to take the boy to Anbu headquarters.

'It seems just plainly wrong, even tough he's a thief.' His mind told him at that time. But his heart knows better.

He opens the door slowly and steps into the room. The boy is still sitting on the bed, only moves his head slightly when he comes in. Sasuke notices that the water is still untouched. He puts the plate beside the water and once again sits on the bed beside him. The boy looks at him questioningly, looks deeply into Sasuke's mask almost as if those black orbs can penetrate it.

"Your name?" Sasuke asks.

"Tooya. Where am I?"

Sasuke stands up to take the glass and offers it to Tooya. Silently he takes his offer, even tough he doesn't take a sip of it. The Anbu Captain sits back.

"In my house. Why are you here? In Konoha?"

"I just try to eat here."

"By stealing?" Sasuke taunts him. Tooya just smiles.

"If I have to."

Sasuke smiles secretly behind his mask.

'He's interesting.' Sasuke thinks. 'He definitely has something that not most children have, maturity.'

_Itachi just came from picking Sasuke from school, when his father called them both to the living room. The Uchiha prodigy had beaten a group of foreign ninja the day before, and it was because they called them cuties and threatened to eat them alive, sexually speaking of course. Itachi couldn't take that and beat them into a bloody pulp._

_"You understand that this will bring trouble to our family, don't you?"_

_"I know." Itachi faced his father with stubbornness._

_"Then why did you do that!"_

_"I don't like it when people threaten Sasuke and I."_

_His father hits the table angrily._

_"You can run and call someone or whatever! Or just ignore them! Do you plan to beat anyone who threatens you and Sasuke!"_

_Itachi's sharingan spin wildly at that remark._

_"If I have to." _

He idly wonders why he thinks about his past again. It has been twice he thinks about it in less than an hour. Perhaps it's because the news of thievery act at the Hokage's library, or perhaps it isn't. He honestly doesn't know for sure. His eyes draw back to the glass that Tooya is holding. Sasuke wraps his hand around Tooya's hands gently, guiding the clear glass to his lips, while his other hand supports the boy's back in an embrace.

"Drink it. That sleep spells surely makes you thirsty."

He smiles once again when Tooya drinks the water with no complain.

-,-'-,-'-,-'-

Near Naruto's apartment, a young boy walks back into his apartment after a long training by the forest, as his brother told him before. However, upon his arrival he frowns deeply as he spots no sign of his older brother. He goes into his room and finds his twin sister sits on a chair, reading an old scroll that even he doesn't want to know what that's about. Obviously their brother has stolen it from somewhere.

"Where's aniki, Arashi?" he asks as he puts his kunai on the table. Arashi doesn't answer immediately; she pours some powder into a bowl, which she arranges neatly on the table.

"He hasn't come yet, Sora."

"I can see that." He replies nonchalantly and helps himself with some old kunai and shuriken which his brother brought for him earlier. Just as he about to reach the stacks of kunai, a loud explosive sound alerts him. Sora looks at Arashi in fear as the young girl holds a suspicious-looking black sphere in her hand. A wide grin on her face only assumes that she has found something interesting.

"What's that?" He asks, while pointing his finger at the black ball.

"This?" She confirms. With a dramatic pause, she raises her hand in front of her eyes and examines the ball. "It will be a stronger version of smoke bomb, once I've done with it. It will work well with your fire jutsu."

"It will?"

"I don't know."

"Then why the heck did you say that!" Sora pulls his black hair in frustration.

There is a deafening silence as Arashi gazes at her twin.

"Just to make sure that I'm not completely useless." Arashi says softly. She lowers her head, making her beautiful black tresses cascade over her face like a curtain, concealing her expression. Sora cannot see her face, but he's sure that it's one full of sadness. Truly, among them Arashi is the only one who cannot perform any jutsu correctly. Whatever jutsu she makes, she only can make it as far as half normal shinobi would. But she's abnormally gifted with awesome brain and the rare ability to invent. That makes their father sometimes goes home with a stack of different scrolls, books and materials. And that habit also works the same with Tooya, as he always gives her whatever he can find.

Sora comes closer to her and embraces her lightly. Arashi relaxes in her brother's hold and turns her face upwards. Two sets of azure sky meet each other, and they know that there's no more words may explain things better.

-,-'-,-'-,-'-

Two figures jump and land gracefully at one of the highest branch in the woods. One of them carries a huge white bundle on his back, while the other one brings nothing. Both of them stops there, while examining their surrounding. The cool breeze wipes their long cloaks gently, cloaks which gives a clear sign to their identity.

"Itachi san," the bigger man says, he opens his straw hat to reveal a weird face, shark-like with gills and light blue skin. "Are we going to strike now?"

The other man also takes off his hat, to reveal a pair of blood-red eyes. He scans the place around him, which happens to be an outside border of Lightning country. Spotting no puny shinobi hiding, he deactivates his sharingan.

"We'll wait, Kisame." He answers simply.

Kisame doesn't miss a sharp tone in his partner's voice. After all, he might be far less clever than the Uchiha prodigy but he's also an Akatsuki member.

"So you'll let those Konoha ninjas take the scroll and we'll just snatch them. Very brilliant, Itachi san."

Itachi doesn't answer.

"I wonder if you just want the scroll or along with the carrier." Kisame attempts to hit him with a bad joke. When he receives no answer from his silent companion, he knows that he should've shut him mouth instead.

-,-'-,-'-,-'-

Three days later…

Sasuke has been accustomed to Tooya's present around him. That kid makes him feel so at ease that he even expands the shield until his living room. It means Tooya may watch TV or go the kitchen and bathroom whenever he pleases. It gives him two benefits at once as Sasuke doesn't need to watch him like a prisoner and he might learn something new about Tooya. Sasuke knows that he's hiding some secret, a skeleton in the closet that Sasuke is still uncertain of. That's why he still keeps his own private matters away from him. He seals several rooms in the house, not letting the younger boy to even know that there's something there.

He just barely puts his mask, when he senses chakra rises from the living room. Sasuke quickly goes into the living room to check, and what he sees almost makes his heart stops beating.

There, Tooya stood near the window, the ray of sunshine lights up his pale face perfectly. He stares intently at something outside. Illuminates by the sun, Sasuke can see a glimpse of unnatural redness within the boy's eyes.

Eyes that should have been black shines like red jewels. Red jewels that shines like his own.

End of Chapter 2

Sorry for the short chapter, but Fui's working on it, hehe

Review Please


	3. Chapter 3

The Unfolded Memories  
Chapter 3

Author: Fui  
Editor/Layout: AnN  
Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine  
Warnings: yaoi

"It has been three days..." Sora sighs impatiently while pacing in his apartment; he's very hungry. His twin has come out to get some materials and he starts thinking whether they should try to find Tooya. Their brother has gone somewhere; apparently completely forget to leave some money behind. Arashi goes shopping with the very last money they have. They can use _that _to find Tooya, but their father has said that it may only be used under very difficult circumstances. So far as he can think of it, it's not a difficult situation. Money can always be earned, in one way or another.

With a wide grin on his face, he grabs his empty lunchbox and leaps out to Konoha Academy. He has been there several times to observe children of his age practice to throw kunai and shuriken and to take the leftover objects afterwards. But he will be there today for entirely different reason. His brother has told him a secret way to get easy money without stealing. He hasn't told Arashi about this merely because Arashi is a girl and she's not as strong as Tooya and himself. Sora sees a group of girls standing under a big tree, sharing their lunch happily and chatting under the comforting tree shades. He performs a series of seal and channels some of his chakra to cover his entire body. With that, he walks closer to the group of girls and joins them.

"Ah, look at him!" one of the girls squeals in surprise as she sees Sora walks to them. The rest of the group turn to see him also and in an instant, the young boy attracts their attention so much that they can hardly blink their eyes. Sora wears his usual attire today, but for a reason that seems to turn those girls' world upside down. Their eyes seem to be glued to the boy's firm figure, the way his white jacket sways and how close those perfect legs will bring the dashing boy right in front of them. As Sora stands right before their eyes, now they can see the soft strands of raven hair, and the beautiful blue sapphires that shine as he looks at them with a sweet smile on his thin lips.

"Can I join you?" he asks. The girls immediately give him some space as they hear that sweet, divine voice. Sora sits among them, and the girls waste no time to know him.

"Who are you?" one of them asks.

"I'm Sora."

As soon as he says his name the rest of the conversation goes smoothly. They speak about their life at school and else, while happily sharing their lunch with him. They're completely oblivious to the fact that Sora often takes good parts and keep it in his own big lunchbox that he has prepared. He has taken many then: fruits, cakes, onigiri and some bread that those girls willingly give to him.

"Thank you for today, everyone." He says as he prepares to leave.

"Come here again, Sora chan."

"Yeah, come again tomorrow. I'll share my chocolate cupcakes again. I'll bring many for you." One of the girls says to him.

"You can have my fruits also. I'll bring more apples tomorrow!"

"And my onigiri."

"My bread also."

Sora smiles as he looks at those girls. Well, that jutsu works more than he has expected with those cute girls. He definitely has to use it more.

"Thanks, girls. But I don't know if I can come here tomorrow."

"How come, Sora chan?"

"I have to work. I want to buy kunai and shuriken for my brother." Sora answers, his face lightens up with sweet sadness as he watches them.

"Sora chan, I'll give you my weapons!" one of them says enthusiastically.

"Yeah, I'll give you mine too."

"I have this big, windmill shuriken. I'll give it to you, Sora chan."

"Whatever you need, Sora chan. Just come here tomorrow."

Sora looks at them with fake uncertainty.

"Promise us, Sora chan."

"Okay I promise. I'll see you tomorrow then." The young boy flashes his dashing smile and leaves them. Behind him, he still can hear those girls squeal with delight.

Sasuke stares at Tooya with uncertainty. Completely in shock, he seems to be glued in his spot, unable to move. As quick as it seems, the redness disappears from the boy's eyes. Sasuke wonders if he's just seeing things then.

'Was that an illusion? I must be really tired to think I've seen another pair of sharingan.' Sasuke think aloud, unaware that he has voiced 'sharingan' loud enough for Tooya to hear.

"Sharingan?" Tooya asks, facing Sasuke. He notices that Tooya's chakra has decreased into normal level. Indeed, the barrier has been specially made so that even the slightest chakra disturbance will alert him. The boy looks at him with great interest, and Sasuke cannot help himself from sharing something.

"Sharingan is special bloodline limit ability in Uchiha clan. It can decipher and copy any ninjutsu, reveals genjutsu and also advance over taijutsu."

"I've never heard of it." Tooya says.

"That's weird."

"Perhaps it's because not many people walks around with sharingan?" he half-asks him.

"Indeed. There are only two people left."

Tooya says nothing more.

"I'll go out for a while. You can take anything from the fridge; if you want to watch TV I keep the remote in the drawer."

Sasuke walks to the door as he hears Tooya speaking.

"It's such a shame for those great eyes to die."

He stops then. Carefully, he faces the young boy again.

"A shame indeed." He replies as he turns and goes out of the room. Idly, Sasuke wonders if it's such a good idea to take the boy captive like that. After all, Tooya isn't exactly like other kids around. He seems to be more matured and even somehow dangerous. Sasuke can easily spot several lies here and there, as if he's trying to cover something.

"I haven't said anything about sharingan is a bloodline limit for eyes."

--,--,--,--,--,-

Kiba carefully keeps the scroll inside his bag. Retrieving the scroll has been easier than he thought it would be. They found lots of clue and can get it quickly. He appears to be more alert than usual, now that they've left Lightning Country. He can sense something really strange; even Akamaru who usually barks aloud when there's an enemy nearby just hides in his jacket and shivers with fear. As for himself, he can smell a unique scent. It's not sickening and full of killing intent as another pursuing ninja would. In fact, it's so intoxicatingly sweet, like a warm fire and like a soothing breeze at the same time. The scent brings calm to him, but he has to stay alert. If there's a scent like that it means there's an enemy around, an enemy that perhaps cannot be taken even by their combined power.

"Naruto." He calls.

"What is it?"

"Stay sharp. There's an enemy, a powerful one. They perhaps cannot take him," he indicates their subordinates. "But we might have a chance."

"Where's he?" Naruto asks as he draws his kunai out. Kiba looks around and suddenly charges towards a tall tree, throwing his own kunai at one of the highest branches.

"There!" at his shout, the other members become prepared as well, weapons in hands. The branch appears to be empty, and at the same time their team members fell to the ground. The smell of blood invades his nose and Kiba goes berserk as he cannot see his enemy. Naruto still on his guards, whoever this enemy is he cannot take him lightly. More because he can feel Kyuubi seals his chakra once again for unknown reason.

"Naruto! Use your bunshin, find him!"

"Kiba, I…"

"Quick!"

Naruto hesitantly tries to perform the jutsu, knowing fully that once Kyuubi seals his chakra there's nothing he can do. As expected, the jutsu fails.

"What happened?!" Kiba seems to panic.

"I don't know!" Naruto lies.

Not far from them, flame appears suddenly above the ground and when it's gone there's a figure stands there. He watches them intently with blood-red eyes. Kiba looks at him dumbly.

"Sasuke! What are you doing here?! There's an enemy—"

"Kiba! That's not Sasuke!" Naruto cuts in.

"What are you—" Kiba looks at the person carefully. Now that Naruto has mentioned it, he surely seems different from Sasuke. He's taller, and his dark hair doesn't style in the same way as Sasuke.

"Itachi." Naruto says.

Itachi smiles. Kiba shivers at seeing him smiles, such a beautiful and predatory smile at that. Itachi advances slowly, making sure that those two will never make any stupid moves. But he's certain that Naruto will never make any move, so that leaves just Kiba.

"Take this!" Kiba makes a series of seals quickly, while Akamaru leaps out of his jacket and stands beside his master. Itachi stops in his track, and raises his hand to point at something behind Kiba.

"It's too late." The older Uchiha prodigy states calmly. "Look behind you."

Both Kiba and Naruto turn around and watch in awe at the sight before them. There, they see Sasuke. But not just Sasuke. This Sasuke they see is made purely of fire, and he levitates in the open air with his great wings of fire. Strangely enough, the fire isn't burning at all. They can see how this extraordinary creature who resembles Sasuke just stares at them blankly, while waiting for Itachi's command to attack them at any time.

"Strike him, Sasuke." Itachi commands him. In an instant, the fire burns as feather-like tongues of flame form in front of Sasuke. And the tongues of flame strike Kiba even before he realizes it.

"Kiba!" Naruto screams as he sees Kiba drops onto the ground. Suddenly Kisame appears next to Kiba, makes Naruto jumps back in surprise. Kisame looks at him with funny expression as he begins to search through Kiba's clothes.

"Don't worry kiddo. I won't hurt you." He says, as his hands travel to Kiba's bag to find the scroll. When he has found it, he and hides it securely in his Akatsuki cloak. "Really, Itachi san. Should you use Sasuke chan's power to face these kids?"

Itachi doesn't answer. He raises his hand and the fire angel descends down, dispatching his fire and appears as a normal Sasuke, only with red and black tight outfit. His red eyes glare menacingly at Kisame, as he walks past him. Naruto burns with rage and run to attack Itachi. His hand aims to hit Itachi's face with his fist and Itachi seems to make no movement. As the fist is about to collide with his face, Itachi easily catch both of Naruto's smaller hands in his larger ones. He spins him around and seizes him effectively in a hold. The older man breathes the scent of morning dew in Naruto's hair deeply, as he says:

"Don't, Naruto kun. Don't fight me. You know you can't."

"Itachi…" Naruto says weakly. He doesn't know the reason for it, but he feels like he wants to lay forever there, within Itachi's embrace. Itachi slowly releases him and as quickly as he releases Naruto, he seizes him again for a kiss. Naruto is shocked, his blue eyes widen for a while before finally he closes them as Itachi daringly sweeps his tongue on his lips. When he opens his eyes again, Itachi isn't surprised to see a pair of red eyes.

"Uchiha…" Naruto growls within kisses. Itachi says nothing; he merely succumbs to his own need to have him, to take him as he has done before.

--,--,--,--,--,-

_Flashback—_

"Itachi…itachi, it hurts. Stop it."

The room was quiet, save for the sound of Naruto's mumbling in his sleep. Somehow, the previous events had already soaked in into his mind, turned into a nightmare. Itachi had taken him, forcibly forcing himself inside Naruto's smaller body and marred the place that had meant for Sasuke only. The older Uchiha's daring move had left him broken afterwards, Naruto kept crying until he collapsed with exhaustion. As for Itachi, he merely redressed himself and walked out of the room.

"Itachi san, Sasori has come back and he said he's going to give you something. It's in the library." Kisame said as he walked side by side with him. They went to the library then, and Itachi took some very old scrolls from restricted area. The scrolls were so old that Kisame sure if he was the one who opened it, then the scroll would turn into shreds. The Uchiha put it one the table then and carefully opened the scroll. Kisame's eyes widened in surprise when looked into its contents.

"Is that what I think it is?" Kisame asked him.

"Yes."

Kisame smiled weirdly. He watched Itachi closely as he resealed the scroll and kept it in his pocket. And he followed him as they went out of the library.

"How are the kids doing?" Itachi asked nonchalantly.

"They're doing very fine, Itachi san."

Itachi said nothing, but his mind had already swarmed with thoughts that no one can read save for himself. He walked back to Naruto's place and Kisame, being an understanding person as he was, directed towards different path.

_Flashback ends—_

--,--,--,--,--,-

Sasuke walks down Konoha streets, still deep in thoughts. He's wearing his usual blue shirt and white shorts, his Anbu mask dangling on his hips. Sasuke has never been without that mask wherever he goes lately. And the answer of that strange phenomenon is Tooya. He makes him on guard always; as he entered his house at Uchiha compound he always being careful to put on his mask first. Although on a good day like this when he's strolling down the path of Konoha, he will be more than glad to take off his ceramic mask. Well, it can be quite irritating when you have to wear it around. And this time, the Anbu captain is so deep in thought that he doesn't even realize a quick blur of white crashes with him.

"Ow!" the blur, which happens to be a young boy, whines loudly when he falls. His lunchbox rolls over; cakes, breads, onigiri and candies scatters all over the place. Sasuke feels sorry and he helps the young boy. He hauls him to stand up and picks his lunchbox. The boy doesn't look at him; he's still busy cleaning himself and looks at the wasted food.

"Sorry for that." Sasuke says.

"Look, Mister. You—" The boy quickly looks at him. And he stops when he sees Sasuke's face. And suddenly…

"Father!" he screams loudly in surprise and quickly hugs Sasuke. And the Uchiha prodigy is so surprised that he cannot even move. And all of the people around him suddenly stops moving and stare at the stunned Uchiha. Even several ninja who are patrolling stop their patrol and look at their Anbu captain. And the birds somehow stop singing, perhaps they're staring at him as well. What a wonderful day.

After what seems like an eternity, Sasuke manages to kick some senses into his overloaded brain and untangles himself from him.

"Wait, I'm not your father." Sasuke says firmly.

The boy looks at him again and examines his face closely. Sasuke stares back into those brilliant blue orbs. The boy steps back then.

"You're right. You're not."

Sasuke observes the fallen foods and how this cute boy softly sniffing his cries over those foods. Feels sorry himself, Sasuke pokes him gently.

"Come on, I'll buy you some food." He offers him. "What do you want?"

His eyes shine suddenly at the sound of food. The boy taps his finger against his chin lightly, before he decides.

"Ramen!"

"Ramen?"

"Yeah," he nods enthusiastically. "My brother ever takes me to eat ramen, but I never eat it again after that. I want to take it for my sister also. She likes it."

"Okay, ramen then." Sasuke speaks with a smile on his lips and takes him towards Ichiraku.

"What's your name?" The boy asks him.

"Sasuke. You?"

"Sora. Okay, father look-alike. Let's go eat ramen!" he happily bouncing up and down and grabs Sasuke's hand to run down the street.

'It feels good somehow.' Sasuke muses to himself as he's being dragged down the street. 'Father…I wonder if this is how it feels to have a child.'

As they arrive at Ichiraku, Sasuke immediately orders two sets of special ramen. Sasuke sits silently; he's completely amused by the boy's relaxed gestures and easiness.

"So, Sasuke san. What do you do?"

"I'm an Anbu."

"Anbu. That's cool!"

"Yeah, perhaps." Sasuke says. Their orders are served and Sasuke is about to start eating when they boy has already taken a huge bite. "So, where's your father now?"

"faa-err?"

Sasuke smiles. Sora attempts to speak with his mouth full of ramen. Sasuke reaches up and touch his cheek.

"Don't speak with your mouth full."

Sora chews and swallows the noodle quickly. He answers Sasuke's question then.

"I don't know."

"How come you don't know?"

"Father is a ninja. He's always traveling with his friend, collecting cool jutsu and stuff. He has his own group, and they're so kind."

"A ninja? Of which hidden village?"

"I don't know. Father never tells."

"Is your father look like me?" Sasuke asks again.

"Mmmm." Sora looks at him closely. "Yeah, but you're not as powerful as him!"

Sasuke doesn't know whether he should get angry at that remark or just ignoring it as it's probably just a child's admiration towards his father. He decides on the latter.

"So he's cool, huh?"

"Very cool."

"What about your mom?"

"Dunno, father never tells. I just know that she has blonde hair and blue eyes. I'm lucky to have father's hair, blonde is too bright. Sasuke san, do you have children?"

"No."

"Make one!" He says enthusiastically, makes Sasuke chokes on his noodles.

"Wh-what?!"

"Make one! It's fun to have children, at least father said so."

"Your father?"

"Yeah. Father said that one of the greatest happiness in his life is to have us!"

Sasuke thought about that. Really, he had never thought of that. He never thinks about it because Naruto is a boy. How the hell on earth they can have babies? Of course they can always adopt some unfortunate children, but Sasuke still wants his own flesh and blood, a child with sharingan. But if to have that means breaking the blonde's heart, then he'd rather not to. Let the sharingan die away fro that matter. In fact, Itachi should've been the one who restores the clan. He's the one who destroyed it after all.

The meals are finished quickly and both Sora and Sasuke trots away from Ichiraku with full stomach. Sora brings two packages of ramen in his hands. He seems very happy.

"Sasuke san, can I see you again?"

"Sure."

"Then at this time, here, tomorrow. You're an Anbu, right? Teach me cool stuff!"

"Okay."

Sora nods and leaps away home, leaving Sasuke stands alone in the middle of the street. It's noon already, and he has to go to Hokage's tower.

'I have lots of things to tell you Naruto, when you get home.'

End of Chapter 3

Review Please


	4. Chapter 4

The Unfolded Memories  
Chapter 4

Author: Fui  
Editor: AnN  
Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine  
Warnings: yaoi

"Don't kidding me!"

Sasuke is quite surprised to hear the Hokage screams at the top of her lung like that. He listens closely at the door.

"It's true Hokage sama."

"Should we announce the Captain?"

"No, don't tell him. He'll—"

"Don't tell me of what?!" Sasuke opens the door roughly, causing the other two ninjas to jump in surprise.

"Sit down, Captain." Tsunade says, crossing her hands under her chin.

"Alright, now tell me what's going on." Sasuke asks as he sits in front of the Hokage. Tsunade takes a file from her desk and throws it at Sasuke. The Uchiha looks at the file and his eyes widen in surprise. "This is…"

"That's right. It's the culprit who steals the scrolls. It's reported that he maybe he has steal most of original scrolls of water-based jutsu."

"But this is…" Sasuke finds himself at lost of words. In the file, he sees a picture of himself holding a scroll. He's never worn a tight black clothes and red cloak like that, and that smirk is definitely not his.

"I know it's not you, Captain. That's not even a kage bunshin."

"That's right." The other cuts in. "He's engaged in fight In Water Country. It's reported that he's mastering the fire element."

"Fire?" Sasuke asks.

Tsunade takes a deep breath. "Both of you, leave this room at once."

Without complaint, those two ninjas leave the room. Sasuke retrieves other documents that she gives to him. His eyes roll in confusion as he examines the contents. After a while, he looks at the female Hokage in the eye as if asking her whether this is some kind of sick joke.

"As you can see, the culprit is probably not even human. He's one of those which are called elemental guardians. The fire."

"I thought it's just a legend." Sasuke says firmly.

"It's not. Why do you think Orochimaru wants to study every jutsu in this world?"

It doesn't take minutes for the Uchiha prodigy to answer.

"To have them."

"That's right. Be careful now, Uchiha Sasuke. This guardian impersonates you based on its master wish. So whoever his master is, he has a grudge against you."

"I will." Sasuke says as he walks out of the room with the documents in his hands. He pauses before the door then. "Hokage sama, how many water-based scrolls are left?"

"Probably around six. Three of them are here, and I've asked Kiba's team to take another one from Lightning Country."

"And the other two?"

"We don't know their whereabouts. They're forbidden jutsus, so strong that the Ichidaime was forced to seal them somewhere, never to be used again."

The room becomes silent for a minute.

"Uchiha Sasuke, find these scroll and bring it here. Before they can. We'll destroy those scrolls."

"But—"

"I know it's such a shame to make a jutsu into history, but it's necessary."

---000---

Kiba slowly rises up. He feels like he has been beaten by a mob of angry wildebeest. His head hurts like hell and he sees his clothes has been burned and torn. It scatters all round him like useless scraps. Wait, it is night already? Well, he certainly sure they left the Lightning Country at early morning; perhaps they've been lying there for a day long. He walks over to his fallen comrades then and wakes them up. As they wake up, he realizes that one of his friends is missing.

"Naruto?" he calls for the blue-eyed blonde and sniffs around for a trace of his scent. No luck, either.

"What happened?" one of them asks, particularly to no one as he holds his throbbing head.

"I don't know."

"Yeah, aren't we just walked when there's something attack us?"

Kiba closes his eyes. He needs to concentrate better if he wants to find Naruto. He makes a series of seals and delivers some of his chakra to Akamaru. The white dog barks loudly and runs quickly; Kiba follows him deeper into the wood with his teammates trail them closely. After running for a while, there they see the blonde lying underneath a large tree, sleeping peacefully. Kiba comes closer and winces when strong scent of sex hits his nose. Nevertheless, he says nothing as he walks over to his fallen friend.

"Naruto! Oi, wake up!" he shakes Naruto's body gently. Receiving no answer, he shakes him harder. "Naruto! Oi!"

Naruto's eyes open slowly. "Wha…Kiba? What it is?"

"Don't say 'what is it'. What happened?!"

"What happened?" Naruto seems confused. "What are you talking about?"

"What…" Kiba seems surprised. Is Naruto suffering short-term of memory lost or something?

"The scroll. Do we still have it?" one of the team members asks.

Kiba shakes his head slowly.

"The mission is failed, and we can't go after the enemy since they're probably quite far away. Plus, we don't know who we should after."

"Let's go back." Kiba leads his team away from the forest with heavy steps. How can they fail this mission anyway? And what's that with the strong smell of sex anyway? Kiba's steps become gradually faster. He needs to get out of there before deciding to do something else.

---000---

Kisame walks beside his partner with full stomach and he's quite happy with that. Itachi has decided to have fish for lunch, and an extremely good one at that. Truly, after they had attacked those Konoha's brats they returned to Lightning Country and had a meal there. Even Itachi, in Kisame's opinion, is looked very pleased as well. Not that the older Uchiha shows much of his emotion anyway. In doesn't take a genius to figure out that Itachi's happiness is not based on the fish only. And Kisame isn't a genius.

"We only have several more scrolls to go, and then the test will decide everything." Itachi starts a conversation with the shark man. Well, such a rare opportunity that is. Itachi must be extremely in high spirits today.

"Itachi san, shouldn't you try that jutsu already?"

Itachi takes the scroll from his pocket. He stares at the scroll for quite a while, and plays his fingers over the blue string which ties the scroll tightly. He quickly rips open the scroll and scans the content before swiftly releasing the jutsu as well.

"Suiton: Hissori no Fuuin no Jutsu!"

Kisame sees a blast of water comes quickly out of nowhere and engulfs his body. He tries to struggle, but just as soon as he's trying, the water disperses. Kisame looks as his dry body strangely.

"Um, what happened? Is that a jutsu?"

"Kisame, try to perform a jutsu. Anything." The Uchiha prodigy orders him. Kisame does as he's told and makes a seal.

"Suiton: Mizubunshin no Jutsu."

Itachi smirks while Kisame looks around in confusion as no clone appears. He checks himself, making sure that his chakra is alright. Well, his chakra reserve is just fine and the chance of his mistake in making seals is definitely zero. He feels Itachi's amused glance over him then.

"Itachi san…"

"This jutsu will render an enemy's ability to perform jutsu for an hour." Itachi explains.

"And the remedy?" Kisame asks.

"Another jutsu from him." Itachi indicates Sasuke, who suddenly appears behind Kisame.

Kisame looks surprised. Sasuke takes the scroll from Itachi's hand and keep it in his own cloak. The shark man is waiting, waiting for Sasuke to release this jutsu from him. But Sasuke does nothing; he merely stares at him with funny expression.

"Hey, brat! Release this jutsu!" Kisame tries to order him. As an answer, Sasuke makes several fiery feathers in his hands.

"What's that?"

"Sasuke says that if you don't stop ordering him around, he will stick those feathers into your ass."

Kisame shudders with fear. He knows Sasuke will act as he pleases, whether it's Itachi's command or not.

"I'll stay out." Kisame says. He feels like a heavy burden has been lifted from his shoulder when he sees Sasuke dissolves the feathers.

---000---

"Where do you get that ramen?" Arashi asks her twin. She knows they don't have enough money to buy something like that.

"Someone gave it to me." Sora puts the ramen onto the table and prepares lunch for his twin. Arashi moves next to him and gives him two black spheres. Sora has seen it before, smoke bombs. Well, at least it used to be a smoke bomb. Who knows what it might be now.

"Here, my promise. For guarding yourself."

"Thanks, Arashi."

"Don't mention it."

Sora looks at the way his twin eats those delicious strands of ramen in awe. He always wonders how they can be so different. While he eats in rush and eagerness, Arashi prefers to dine in style no matter what the circumstances are. He watches her slurps the soft noodle elegantly; Sora walks over to the counter and grab a bottle of water. He examines the bombs in his hand and wonders how on earth Arashi can posses such intelligence. Well, both of them are very different. Sora will act most likely based on his instinct, while Arashi calculates everything accurately. Sora prefers to train than study, while Arashi doesn't. As he thinks of it, Arashi's personality is just like a splitting image of their father's. As for Sora, his personality is probably just like their mother's. A mother they never know about.

"What are you thinking about?" Arashi asks him without even turning her attention from her food. Sora doesn't seem at least a bit surprised. Well, Arashi can always know whenever he thinks of something strange. Just as he always knows right at the time she does the same thing. Sora sits on an empty chair in front of her then, playing with his water in the bottle as he speaks.

"Do you ever think about mother?"

"No." She answers bitterly. Sora looks at her in the eyes with mocking expression.

"You lie."

Arashi takes a deep breath as she stops eating her ramen. He looks at his brother deeply.

"Even if I think about her, what can I do? Father won't tell a thing about her, not even our brothers know something about her. Why do you want to know anyway?"

Sora smiles. He reaches up and takes a bite of noodle from Arashi's bowl.

"Nothing. I just want to know." He takes another bite. The dark-haired girl stares at him sharply. Sora is never the type of person who can easily conceal something, moreover in front of her. He's just like an open book. And he's not that hard to read.

"The person who gives you this. Is he special?" Arashi points at the bowl.

"Eh?"

"I'm asking you."

"You know, you're pretty creepy. Can you read my mind or something?"

Arashi doesn't answer; she merely stares at him harder. Sora has to agree with his own thought anyway: his twin is creepy, almost like their father. Well, except for the fact that their father does that more often.

"He…" Sora taps his fingers against the table slowly before facing her. "Looks a lot like father."

Arashi doesn't even widen her eyes at that news. In fact, it's Sora who sits up in surprise and points a finger at her accusingly.

"You've met him before, don't you? Why don't you tell me?! It's at our first time here, isn't it?!" He half-screams.

Arashi smiles.

"And you said that I'm creepy, as if I can read your thoughts. What are you then?"

Sora sits back then; a cute scowl adorns his sweet face.

"Your twin?" he tries.

"Indeed." The girl replies scornfully. "I've met him before, when we just moved here. I almost crushed his partner's nose at that time."

"Nose?"

"At time like this, the right question should be 'his partner', you know?" Arashi explains to him.

"Just continue the story. So?"

"His partner is our neighbor, Naruto. But I don't know who he is."

"Black eyed…" Sora says to her, tries to confirm his suspicion.

"Bluish-black hair…"

"Tall…"

"Handsome…"

"A bit creepy…"

"Not creepy, mysterious …"

"That's him then!" Sora concludes happily. "He's Sasuke!"

Arashi reaches a glass of water. "When are you going to see him?"

"Tomorrow."

"I'll come with you. I just want to see, I won't disturb you." Arashi says, leaving no open space for Sora to argue.

---000---

Sasuke goes home with heavy burden. He has many things to think about, Naruto hasn't come back yet and if that information about elemental guardian is true then his life is doomed. As the legend says, the elemental guardian is the best tool for battle. They never run out of chakra, as they may draw the source from the earth itself. That's completely out of his league, no matter how strong he is at this time. He recalls the time when he sees the secret report from a Hyuuga nin. It's told in the report that he saw no chakra pathways as he scanned him with his Byakugan. That thing which resembles Sasuke is made of pure chakra, and that the last thing the Hyuuga could see before a great ball of fire stroke him.

But above that, now he worries over his lover. Naruto might be strong, and one can only imagine the result of war between one of the elemental guardians and the Kyuubi container. He hopes that Naruto never encounters this creature, but then again when that thing comes after the scroll in Naruto's group, there's no way a fight can be avoided. He's here in Konoha, while Naruto is probably still in Lightning Country. They're so far apart, and Sasuke cannot help him at all when it happens. The only thing that's left for him to do is to be less worry and find the remaining scroll as soon as possible. And he seems to have an inkling of those two scrolls whereabouts.

A weird song has been sung since his childhood, passed down through Uchiha generation. And his brother can even sing different piece of that song, he had heard him hummed that tune before. But Sasuke has forgotten about that. Not only because he rarely heard Itachi sang, but he heard that piece maybe just once or twice. He tries to remember then…

_Of a thousand gemstones, myriads of sparkles  
__When night glows, and skies silent  
__Of different eyes, hate and sorrow  
__I can be known…_

And Itachi's piece would be…

_Reach the depth of dream, the same soul—_

His instinct says that the song is the key to find those scrolls, but somehow he forgets the rest of the lyrics. With heavy steps, he goes back into Uchiha's compound to get some rest. Perhaps Itachi keep that song's text somewhere in his room. It's against his morale to go into Itachi's room, but it seems the only option he has. The only Uchiha left in this earth are him and his brother only; and since asking him directly about that is out of question, the only thing left for him is to roam his brother's room and find a trace of it. He puts his mask on and opens the gate of his house. His mind flutters back to the past then, when he saw Itachi as he just came from a mission.

_  
Sasuke walked carefully outside his brother's room, his tiny feet tip-toed lightly. He knew that Itachi just came from his mission, climbing through the window like usual. The younger Uchiha stood near Itachi's room; he tried to find a sign of what his brother was doing in here, as the older Uchiha made no audible sound._

_"Get inside, Sasuke. Don't spying on me." Itachi's deep voice echoed from within the room, made Sasuke jumped out of his skin. He slowly opened the door, and peeking inside. He saw Itachi held some shiny objects in his hand, and Sasuke ran inside to sit next to him._

_"What's that, Aniki?" he watched the shiny things, which turned to be several colorful shuriken, with great interest. They were so beautiful; those shuriken glowed with bluish tone and the other with reddish hue. Sasuke couldn't see it clearly, the room is quite dark anyway. Itachi put one of them in Sasuke's hand._

_"They're gemstones, which is made into shuriken."_

_"They're beautiful. Where did you get it?" Sasuke asked as he examined the blue shuriken in his hand. They looked prettier now that he could touch it._

_"It's a secret. Do you want it?"_

_Sasuke looked up towards his brother. "Can I?"_

_"It's not free though." Itachi answered with a smile on his face._

_"I'll do anything, Aniki."_

_Itachi gestured his little brother to move closer. Sasuke obeyed and as soon as he's within Itachi's reach, the older Uchiha took him in an embrace and titled his face upwards to meet his own. Then his lips lightly brushed Sasuke's as he said:_

_"Happy birthday, otouto."_

_Sasuke received those beautiful shurikens then._

_  
_And he still keeps it until this day. Truly, Itachi had massacred his whole family but he cannot hate his older brother that much. Somewhere far deep within his heart, he still wishes his gentle brother will be back. He has no idea what kind of man Itachi has become now. He's an S-rank criminal, as it's written in the bingo book. But is that all there is? Sasuke is about to open the door of Itachi's room when suddenly he feels reluctant to do so. The Anbu Captain moves towards the kitchen then, still deep in thoughts. He makes himself a cup of warm coffee and sings the song once again to try to remember it.

_Of a thousand gemstones, myriads of sparkles  
__When night glows, and skies silent  
__Of different eyes, hate and sorrow  
__I can be known…  
__Reach the depth of dream, the same soul—_

Sasuke is about to stop singing since he has no idea about the next lyrics, when suddenly another voice joins him. He sees Tooya stands near the door and the boy's lips voice the missing parts sweetly.

_With the key you keep, as the flow of your blood  
__Break the spell which bound  
__I shall make rubies as your floor_

The song ends and Tooya comes closer to take orange juice from the fridge. Instinctively, he quickly catches the boy, throws him onto the couch and effectively straddles his waist to keep him from running. He reaches a kunai in his pocket as his other hand pins Tooya's shoulder roughly. His voice grows hoarse with emotions, as he growls his question.

"Where did you hear that song?!"

Feeling completely insecure, Tooya struggles hardly. His hand quickly reaches up to slap at Sasuke's face. The mask doesn't matter anymore as it fell mercilessly to the floor. Tooya stares at his face in such great shock that he stops his movement all of sudden. Sasuke inches his kunai dangerously close to his throat as he shows his sharingan. The three comas and red hue of his sharingan gaze menacingly. The young boy frozen in fear, he feels the great need to defend himself. He can't die in a place like this. Tooya's chakra arises slightly, and this time it's Sasuke's turn to freeze.

There, staring back at his own sharingan is another pair of sharingan with two comas.

End of Chapter 4

Review Please


	5. Chapter 5

The Unfolded Memories  
Chapter 5

Author: Fui  
Editor: AnN  
Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine  
Warnings: yaoi

"You're…" Sasuke murmurs breathlessly. He still hasn't recovered from his shock as Tooya lands a blow to his stomach, which the Anbu Captain avoids easily by jumping backwards. The young boy stands up; his eyes are looking towards the window cautiously, trying to count and measure the probability of fighting. Fighting inside the room will be disadvantageous for him, while fighting outside is definitely not an option since the older man has erected a shield around them.

"An Uchiha…" he hears him finishes his sentence. The air around the room becomes thick with murderous intent, and Tooya cannot prevent himself from shaking with fear. The other man's presence somehow is more terrifying; even during the practice with his father he never feels like this. Sasuke leaks his vengeful self that should've been reserved to Itachi only, and he leaps quickly towards the young boy. Tooya jumps out of the way, just barely escape when he feels a sharp pain in his stomach. Looking down, he sees his own blood smearing his white shirt. Sasuke makes a few seals and in an instant, the shield crumbles; those layers of chakra fall down like broken glass. Tooya jumps outside, only to see another shield around them.

"Do you think I'm fool enough to let you go?" Sasuke smirks at him as he keeps his kunai in his pocket. Tooya prepares his stance carefully, he has to find away to run and fight along the way. Sasuke keeps himself quiet; he has lost his control since he saw those eyes.

'He's around ten years old. There's no other Uchiha left after that massacre.' He thinks as he faces the young boy with Uchiha blood in front of him. Now that he has seen his eyes, that boy turns out to be eerily similar with his older brother. His own brother, who had killed his own clan, is standing there right in front of him. And there's only one probability over that phenomena.

"Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!" Tooya releases his jutsu while Sasuke is still busy with his thoughts. A huge fireball erupts from his mouth to swallow the older Uchiha, but Sasuke merely smiles. Instead of leaps out of the way or makes a water-based jutsu to put off the fire, he makes the same seal.

"Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!" Sasuke shouts as another fireball appears, crossing path with one another. The two fireballs collide for a moment, makes the ground and sky ablaze with flame before finally Sasuke's fireball wins the match. The fireball becomes bigger and rolls in Tooya's path far quicker than before. Too late for avoid the fire; Tooya fearfully crosses his hands in front of his face when he feels his body being lifted up. Sasuke has moved him to another area, away from the offending fire as he sees it disappear. Tooya stands up again but before he has the chance to prepare himself, strings appears out of nowhere and circling his body. With a sudden pull, he is pulled up against a pillar, his hands are bound behind him and another string is circling his neck strongly. He knows this technique; therefore he knows perfectly that if he moves hastily enough, those sharp wires will cut his skin. If he tries so much as to break himself free, then they will cut his head off as well. Sasuke walks slowly in front of him and point his kunai to Tooya's neck.

"Who are you?" he asks.

Tooya feels like his world is over. It's not uncommon for him to fight powerful shinobi, but this man who's standing in front of him is not just a strong ninja. Against him, it's not only himself who's in danger but also his brother and sister. He remembers what his father says back then.

_'Protect your brothers no matter what.'_

With that in thoughts, he daringly looks at Sasuke in the eyes sharply.

"Uchiha Tooya." He answers with slightly shaking tone.

"Who's your father?"

"I don't know." Tooya easily lies through his teeth just like that, but unluckily Sasuke can't be easily fooled.

"Liar!" He half-shouted to the boy. Tooya is taken aback; his shaking unstoppable, with great difficulty he tries to find a way to counter that statement under those terrifying gaze.

"It's true." He hates the fact that he's shaking like a leaf in the gust of wind at this moment. "I don't know his name. My mother said I'm an Uchiha, I never see my father!"

"Where did you hear that song?!"

"My mother used to sing it for me."

"Is there any other like you?"

"No. My mother died when I was a kid and I have to live alone since then."

"Why do you come here to Konoha?"

"I want to learn ninja arts! I have to protect myself."

Tooya feels the wires loosen before finally fall onto the ground, and he is free. He cannot prevent a small smile from adorning his lips. It has been easy. The things he said before, of course, were a lie. He knows who his father is, but on the contrary he never knows who his mother is. But it never matters; his siblings also have no idea about their mother. They're alone, but that's alright when they have each other. This Anbu in front of him looks so much like his father, but they're so different. The air feels heavy then, and before he knows anything, his body fell mercilessly onto the cold earth in deep sleep. Sasuke has performed a strong sleep spell.

"If you can smile like that, then you were lying." He says to himself as he gathers the unconscious boy in his arms. He senses a pang of jealousy arises within his chest. Itachi has always been better than him in everything. And now he even daringly moves a step ahead of him with this child. It shouldn't have been mattered to him, as this child maybe just a result of unprotected sex after all. But still, he feels the envy overwhelms him.

\-----------------------------------------------------/

_Flashback—_

Three months had passed since Itachi had taken Naruto captive. Itachi barely touched him again since then. Once in a while he joined him in bed, but most of the time Itachi just strolled away from him. Strangely enough, Naruto found himself being extremely forgetful lately. He forgot what had happened sometimes after Itachi came into his room. He remembered the moment when the Uchiha came in but he forgot the rest of it; and somehow, he didn't feel like he needed to know what happened. He never found it tiresome for being a prisoner. The way the older Uchiha treated him sometimes reminded him of Sasuke—he could be sweet and loving, and sometimes he's just Itachi. In these past three months Naruto had learned that Itachi could show the slightest hint of emotion and it extremely intrigued him.

He heard light footsteps approached his room; it was so light that it was barely audible. He didn't have to look to know who it was. The door opened with heavy sound; the sound of rusty joints could be very irritating sometimes. Itachi was standing there with a tray of food in his hands. He had discarded his weird-looking cloak, and worn a dark blue jacket with white shirt underneath it. Naruto found himself unable to breathe for a while; he was Sasuke's brother alright, Itachi could be very charming sometimes.

Itachi came closer and put the tray of food on the table. Naruto suspiciously looked at the food and found that it was the best food that he probably could find all over Konoha. Nevertheless, strangely enough he didn't even find it appealing. He turned his face away from the food as if disgusted. Itachi sat near him and looked at him with a smile.

"Eat now, Naruto." The older Uchiha said patiently. He reached his hand to take a bowl of lovely-smelled chicken soup. His hand dug the food with a spoon and raised it slowly to the blonde. Naruto just looked at the soup blankly.

"What's wrong?" Itachi asked.

"I don't want to eat."

The Uchiha heir looked at him irritably, which is of course unseen through that perfect mask of his. For what seemed like several minutes he stared at the Kyuubi container, resisting the urge to shove that food down his throat. Naruto had been like this for several days, refusing to pass some food through his resisting lips, that the Uchiha often found himself grew a bit worried about his new behavior. Naruto hasn't gone weaker than before but if this thing continued it might endanger his health as well. Itachi swallowed the soup for himself and smiled slightly when he knew the food was indeed delicious. He took another spoonful of soup and put it in his mouth, before kissing the blond and made him swallow the soup as well. Itachi was pleased to know that.

"The food isn't bad, is it?"

Naruto said nothing. He closed his eyes for a brief moment and when he opened them again; his eyes have shone blood red. Kyuubi had taken control of his body, and Naruto smiled to Itachi sweetly.

"It's good, Uchiha." His hands caressed Itachi's body lightly, feeling the supple flesh under those fabrics. Itachi caught his right hand and kissed it gently, before claiming Naruto's lips for a passionate kiss. Their tongues battled that old battle again—a battle that the Uchiha can easily win, and left Naruto breathless on his mercy as always. Itachi licked Naruto's lips softly before he ended the kiss.

"Let me tell you a secret." Naruto spoke to him as he laid his head on Itachi's chest.

"What kind of secret?" Itachi asked him. Naruto whispered softy in his ear then. Itachi's eyes widened for a brief moment before he finally let a meaningful smile adorned his lips. He casually kissed Naruto's forehead then.

"Can I believe this story?" he inquired the Kyuubi container. Naruto nodded his head slowly, he laid his head back onto Itachi's chest as the Uchiha heir encircled his powerful arms around him, felt as content as he could be when the younger boy sunk deeper into his embrace.

"Have I ever lied to you?"

"I suppose you'll never." Itachi answered back as he laid both of them onto the soft mattress.

\-----------------------------------------------------/

Kakashi barely has the time to close his Icha Icha Paradise book when he senses two charkas collides from within the thick walls of Uchiha compound. Leaping from one rooftop onto another, the half-masked man quickly find his way towards the abandoned compound only to be extremely surprised when he sees a barrier of chakra has surrounded a particular area—Sasuke's house. Kakashi circles the area then, tries to find a way to break the barrier and quite disappointed when he finds none. He guesses he may as well have no other choices but to wait patiently outside Sasuke's door, which he does after cleverly concealing himself among thick shrouds of a tree nearby.

The copy ninja can easily tell there are two people inside of that house; one of them, as he can recognize his chakra signature, is Sasuke, while he has no clue about the other one's identity. He examines the burnt ground and finds out that two Katon has crashed, with the result of one of them wins and swallows the other as it rolls with unbelievable speed towards the other's caster. The result itself, he imagines as an ugly one. He can smell the slight scent of blood, but strangely enough, no smells of burned flesh. However, he may not be able to gather any information after this until Sasuke comes out of his house; which he does immediately. Kakashi's eyes follow his movement as he passes the chakra barrier and stands right in front of the tree in which Kakashi is hiding.

"Kakashi, I didn't recall you ever trained to mimic a monkey." He says nonchalantly as he looks upwards. His eyes meet those laughing ones of Kakashi and the older ninja has no other option but to get down from the tree. He dusts his pants off, inwardly cursing at Sasuke's mockery. Kakashi walks forward and stops right in front of the barrier.

"What are you doing here?" Sasuke asks him. Kakashi turns his glance sideways.

"Hm, I'm just passing by. I think I might be able to admire your work for a while here." He indicates the chakra barrier and Sasuke frowns slightly. "You're not cheating Naruto, right?"

"I guess," Sasuke smirks. "This barrier cannot deceive someone with sharingan, can it? What else do you know?"

"Well, a battle…" Kakashi tries to peer closer into the barrier, careful enough not to touch his nose on it. "Between you and…"

"Do you want to make this into your business after all?"

Kakashi thinks about the possibility for a while, he glances upwards at the sky. "I guess…"

"At your own risk then." Sasuke speaks sharply as he dispels the barrier to allow Kakashi to get into the house. He steps inside the house and Kakashi just strolling behind him, like always. Upon admiring the inside, Kakashi comes with a conclusion that Sasuke has been living with someone for the past few days: He sees several used mugs on the counter, TV remote being tossed carelessly on the couch, magazines and books scatter around. Sasuke has always been a clean freak, to say the truth. To see many things scatter around the Uchiha's house is something out of ordinary and Naruto had gone for a mission for quite some time by now.

Sasuke feels Kakashi's eyes look toward him accusingly that it makes those hair on his nape stand, but he doesn't care. He pushes one of the door open, and Kakashi is slightly surprised when he smells the faint scent of blood mixed with herbal medicine. His eyes catch the sight of a young boy lying on the bed; he's topless, white bandage wraps his torso tightly. Kakashi gasps as he looks at the boy's sleeping face.

"Sasuke, he's…"

Sasuke stares at his former teacher. "Itachi's son."

Long silence erupts within them as Kakashi lets this weird information soaks into his brain and evokes thousands of thoughts at the same time while Sasuke merely waits for Kakashi's reaction.

"What are you going to do with him?" Kakashi asks him, only to be greeted with another lengthy silence.

"Now that you ask of it, I know what I must do." Sasuke says as he makes several seals quickly, not allowing Kakashi to copy it with his sharingan. Not that it matters anyway, Kakashi had his eyes closed even since he enters his house. As soon as the jutsu is released, Kakashi can see a hidden door at the corner of the room. Sasuke moves next to Tooya and proceeds to carry him towards the new passage. Kakashi's eyes widen as he watches the scene. Quickly he snatches Sasuke's hand, preventing him from moving any further with the boy in his arms.

"You're not doing what I think you will do, Sasuke." Kakashi says sternly. Sasuke looks at him sharply.

"This is my house, and I bound to do whatever I please here."

"But not this one." Kakashi half-screams to him. "To isolate him from the world is too cruel, Sasuke."

Sasuke looks at Tooya's sleeping face thoughtfully. To say the truth, he doesn't even know what he's supposed to do at this time. But he's more than willing to do whatever within his power to prevent the boy from leaving. Information, that's what his mind's needed right now and he's pretty sure he can gain it through this boy, voluntarily or otherwise. His heart, as usual, merely confuses with his own action.

"I don't need your opinion." Sasuke replies strongly.

"I have to prevent you from doing it, tough." Kakashi silently draws a kunai behind his back. Sasuke realizes this fully; he faces Kakashi with equal determination, without doing so much as to remove his hands from supporting Tooya's body.

"Don't force me, Kakashi. You know it better than anyone that I can kill you without staining my hands."

"Chidori Nagashi…"

"That's right, Kakashi sensei." Sasuke speaks with a smile, heavily accentuating the word 'sensei' to mock him. Kakashi has no counter for that one, though. It's true that he had taught the young Uchiha 'Chidori', but sometimes he regrets that foolish decision. Sasuke feels he's strong because he has Chidori and becomes even more dangerous and power-hungry than before. And he left Konoha during Naruto's absence to find Orochimaru. The snake is killed by Itachi afterwards, but it doesn't change the fact that Sasuke has gained the knowledge of 'Chidori Nagashi'— an even more advanced form of Chidori. It's not rare for both of them to spar Chidori against Raikiri, his own jutsu, but when Chidori Nagashi interferes, Kakashi always finds himself lying on the ground. And Sasuke always restrain himself then.

"You're afraid." Sasuke says as he realizes Kakashi's fear. Kakashi looks at him with sweat rolling down his back. He doesn't want to admit it, but yes, he feels the fear.

"Please don't interfere, sensei." The Uchiha heir opens the door with his will and he steps into the dark alley.

"I won't, as long as you don't mistreat him." Kakashi trails behind him.

"Don't worry. Killing him will be one thing that I'd never do."

"There are things worse than death, Sasuke."

Sasuke says nothing more. His steps guide him deeper into the passageway, with Kakashi still pursuing behind him, making sure everything is alright.

\-----------------------------------------------------/

On the next day, as he has promised before, Sasuke waits for Sora to show up. He's been waiting near Ichiraku for a good ten minutes that he starts to think foolish of himself. Seriously, he doesn't think a kid might remember about a promise at all, seeing how easy-going they are. His assumption is proven wrong, though, as soon as he sees the young boy walks into his direction from distance. Sora hasn't seen Sasuke though; he's quite busy with his twin sister, who occasionally stops here and there to pick some plants. And Sora has been unlucky enough to have to hold a basket full of materials. He scowls; Sasuke can see his cute scowling face from quite far away and he cannot prevent himself from smiling as well. Sora half-runs when he sees Sasuke, leaving Arashi behind.

"Sasuke!" Sora says happily as he hugs Sasuke's waist. Sasuke smiles; he strokes the young boy's head lightly.

"You're with someone?" Sasuke asks him, indicating the young girl who walks closer to them.

"She's my twin, Arashi." Sora answers enthusiastically, signaling Arashi to come quickly. As they meet each other, Sasuke gives her a small smile and Arashi nods her head in acknowledgement.

"We've met each other before. I'm Sasuke."

"Arashi."

Sora tugs at Sasuke's sleeve to get his attention.

"You said you're going to teach me cool stuff." He asks him.

Arashi looks at her twin sharply. "You can't, father—"

Sora looks at him back, only with pleading eyes. "He won't know. After all, Aniki perhaps has known it as well. If he hasn't, then I can teach him. Right, Arashi? And we can say I learn it from him."

"That's cheating." Arashi replies, not entirely agree with his twin's excuse.

"It's not!"

"Well, it is. And you plan to lie to father if he ever asks about this jutsu?"

"He won't. He doesn't even ask where I learned Kagebunshin."

"That's because you copied it from Aniki. He knows it."

"Hmph!"

Sasuke mildly surprised with those two's behavior. He's between children's argumentation for the first time in his life, and he finds the situation to be highly amusing. He looks at his wristwatch then, it's still quite early. Maybe he can take them next to the river bank, where he used to practice his Katon technique. He doesn't know why, but he feels the great urge to teach them. Well, perhaps it can be a good break for him as well; being Anbu Captain is simply too hazardous sometimes, moreover with those strange happenings lately.

"Come on, I'll teach you cool stuff." Sasuke says as he leads them towards the river bank. Without turning his head, he can hear the light steps of Sora following him and the slightly heavier steps of Arashi reluctantly follow them.

End of Chapter 5

Here some note from Fui, hope they could answers some questions3

Itachi did Naruto when he was 13.3

About everyone's age  
Naruto: 20  
Sasuke: 20  
Itachi: 25  
Tooya: 10  
Sora and Arashi: 7

Thanks for reading my story this far. Don't worry; I'm not going to stop writing this story for any reason, even lack of reviews. I hope you can enjoy the following chapter as well. Thanks.


	6. Chapter 6

The Unfolded Memories  
Chapter 6

Author: Fui  
Editor: AnN  
Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine  
Warnings: yaoi

"Here we are." Sasuke states as they arrives at the river bank. They are standing on the wooden pier and both Sora and Arashi looks at their surroundings in awe, for entirely different reason: the young boy admires the scenery, while Arashi's eyes quickly sweep the ground and trees, trying to find materials. Sora hands the basket to his twin as Arashi points a yellowish plant on top of a tall tree. With care, he molds some chakra on his feet and starts to climb upwards. He reaches the plant in no time, as he grasps the plant within his fingers; he yanks at it and gracefully flips his body backwards to jumps down. Sasuke is mildly surprised and he thinks Sora might land hardly, but the young boy manages to land smoothly back onto the ground.

"Don't do that again." Arashi glares at him.

"I'll be fine." Sora assures her. "Don't worry about it."

Sasuke says nothing, even tough he's a bit curious with the contents of the basket.

"What kind of jutsu do you want to know?" he asks them. Arashi looks at him with blank expression while Sora immediately shoots his arms high up and shouts.

"Fire-based. I'm a fire element, father once checked it and he knows that I have affinity to fire, just as our family, the U—Ow!" he yells painfully as his twin steps on his foot hard. "Why do you do that?!"

"Flies." Arashi answers casually.

"On my shoe?! You can remind me using another way, you know."

"As if you'll listen." Both of them engages in a staring contest for a good one minute afterwards, before looking at another direction, not wanting to see each other's face. Sasuke chuckles lightly, earning himself hard stares from both of them. He makes a fake cough then.

"Okay, fire based it is. Watch this." He says as he makes seals slowly. "Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu!"

Fire erupts from Sasuke's mouth as the sealed chakra within his chest bursts out. It lights up the silent river for quite a while, tongues of flames dancing menacingly in the air as the fireball battles to maintain its composure, before finally disappears. The river flow is slightly disturbed, soft-white mist surrounds its surface as the fire's gone.

"I can do that also!" Sora speaks enthusiastically as he stands next to Sasuke. "I'm going to make an even bigger one."

The young boy takes a black sphere from his pocket. Arashi's eyes widen upon seeing the objects—her own recent experiment. She quickly grabs her twin hands then.

"You're not going to use that!"

"We'll be fine; you can use the shield if something happens. Besides…" He looks at Sasuke, who feels slightly like an idiot for not knowing what's going on. "We have father-look-alike here."

Arashi sighs; she knows it better than anyone that Sora can be the most stubborn kid in the whole world. She crosses her arms in front of her chest scornfully.

"Fine, have your way. If anything happens, I'll draw it from you."

"That's my twin." Sora concentrates to gather his chakra in his lungs, as his hands make a series of seals. "Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu!"

Fire emerges once again, this time from Sora's mouth. The fireball is half the size of Sasuke's and it lacks in power and heat, the air becomes soothingly warm because of it. Sora flips his hand and releases the black sphere, right into his Katon. Sasuke foresees a bad thing happens at the last second; he put himself in front of them, effectively stopping Sora's technique from lasting too long. However, it's too late as the bomb has reached the-still-blazing fire. As expected, the fireball explodes like a gigantic blast; the air feels heavy with high temperature and pressure. Sasuke gathers the children in his embrace tightly. The explosion is so terrible that he's sure he can feel his back burning for a second and he closes his eyes firmly. The Uchiha heir feels the air of warm chakra around him then, shielding the three of them from the fuming fire. He turns his head and sees the young girl's outstretches hand; blue chakra vibrates from her palm, forming a blue shield to protect them.

He's too busy seeing Arashi's chakra that he never realizes how Arashi draws that energy from her twin. Their hands intertwine within Sasuke's arms, with their eyes close in deep concentration. As the fire fades away, the shield becomes paler before finally disappears. He lets go of them, and immediately gets surprised when he sees Sora falls onto the ground. He checks the boy's pulse and glad to see it's still there. Arashi, on the other hand, only stares at them. She fishes into her pocket and takes out a small vial. Arashi opens the bottle slightly and put in closely on Sora's nose; the pleasant smell of strawberry fills the air.

"Wake up, Sora. That's not funny, you know?"

No response. Arashi growls and makes a better opening of the bottle. Sora's nose wrinkles vaguely, but he makes no attempt to open his eyes. Sasuke feels confused himself, that's the smell of strawberry alright; in his life he's never know that you can wake unconscious person by giving him the scent of strawberry. Ammonia perhaps, but certainly not strawberry.

"If you don't wake up now, I'm going to fill your room with this and lock you in."

Sora's eyes shot open in no time.

"Okay, okay! I'm up. Just get that thing away from me!" He shouts and runs quickly to hide behind Sasuke. His eyes shine with distrust even as his twin reseals the bottle. Sasuke laughs then.

"What's wrong with you? It's just strawberry." He says, still laughing himself.

"It's not just strawberry to him." Arashi answers; she begins to laugh also. Sora frowns as Arashi begin to tell his shameful stories.

"You see, once he hid aniki's scroll in the bathroom. He also mixed my herbs and put in our food, that father has to go to the bathroom several times. He sent his chakra to open the scroll and father had to battle a sealed monster in the bathroom. He can win easily, but he's really pissed off that he puts him in illusion of strawberry for one hour." The girl explains with a mockery smile.

"That's not funny! Those strawberries were really scary. They're big and hairy, and everywhere you go those strawberries will haunt you. They also fart, and the smell is just like that!" He points at the bottle in Arashi's hand.

Sasuke unconsciously laughs even harder. He doesn't even know that a shinobi can punish his son like that. What a brilliant idea, instead of introducing him with a life and death experience, strawberry will do. However, he stops laughing as he feels two pairs of eyes stare at him. Both Arashi and Sora are looking at him intensely with their blue eyes. Sasuke looks at those sapphires and wonders how similar these kids' eyes with Naruto's.

"What is it?" he asks them.

"You know," Arashi speaks to him. "Your laughter is pretty pleasant."

"Yeah. It almost feels like father who laughs."

Sasuke frowns mildly, although he feels somehow proud inside.

"Your father rarely laughs?" he tries.

Sora shakes his head sadly, while Arashi gazes at him unhappily.

"He smiles rarely, but never laughs. Even when there's something funny, he never laughs."

Sasuke looks at them pitifully. These children perhaps want their father to be more open, they want laughter instead of a simple smile. He wonders what kind of father never laughs with his children, although the children seem to be very proud of their father. But then again, he might've been able to be that kind of parent. He hopes he can laugh more often, tough.

--o0o--

Two days later…

Kiba's team is getting closer to Konoha at this time, there's only less than half more day to go. Their nimble feet take them closer to their village sooner than they've expected, although their mission ends in failure. Kiba keeps thinking of the reason why they lost the scroll. He has secured it within his clothes, and he clearly remembers no battle has taken place. He, as well as the other team member, has entirely forgotten the event when they steps outside the Lightning Country's border. They just remember waking up instead of falling down, and what happened in between remains a mystery. However, this is no mean to let their guard down. Kiba can sense a nasty smell of a group of enemies, cleverly hiding even as they move with the same speed as his team. As they leap from trees to trees, the enemies follow. As they run crossing the field, the enemies are also nearby. It's as if they have no intention to let them go, which Kiba thinks they will never do anyway.

Naruto stops in his tracks, looking around at his surroundings. Kiba stops as well, which makes the rest of his team to quit moving. He asks the blonde then, feigning to be ignorant himself.

"What's wrong, Naruto?"

"Enemies. Around us." He answers. He counts some of them are hiding among bushes…five, six, seven to be exact. The blonde draws a kunai behind his back, when suddenly one of them decides to show himself. They look at the figure in front of them defensively. A tall, huge man has emerges from the bushes, his face heavily marred with scars, his clothes seems to be weather-worn and his eyes show hardly any sign of remaining insanity. He's grinning, showing off several missing teeth as he steps forward.

"Hehe he he, Kyuubi brat." He says with uneven tone. Naruto grimaces at his voice, while Kiba silently commanding his group to dispatch any hiding enemies. The tall man looks at Kiba then…

"No need, no need. Come out here friends…"

As expected, six men come out of the bushes, all of them in more or less similar condition with the previous one. They're ninja without any hitai-ate on their forehead, perhaps they've discarded it a long time ago. In no time they surround the Konoha ninja, with rusty kunai in their hand.

"What do you want?" Kiba asks the tall man, who seems to be the leader of that gruesome group.

"Kyuubi brat."

Kiba's eyes widen as one of the team member grabs Naruto and shields him at the centre of their formation.

"Nonsense, I'm not going to hand him to you!" He shouts angrily.

"Oh, just a little trade here. The Kyuubi brat for your life." The man manages to talk within those small chuckles he makes.

"Wha—" Before Naruto can speak, one of their team members falls onto the ground. One of the enemies has stabbed him on his back, without even him noticing it.

"Easy to kill, you guys."

Kiba averts his eyes from the fallen teammate to the tall man once again.

"What do you want from me?!" Naruto asks with gritted teeth. His hands grip the kunai so tightly that his knuckles turn white.

"You're precious to Akatsuki leader." The man replies.

"Everybody knows that!" Naruto shouts in anger. "They have their members came after me!"

They hear the enemies laugh aloud then.

"Eh he he, do you try to protect him, brat?" he asks in mockery. "Sure thing, he's great in sex, isn't he?"

"Wha—don't speak rubbish to me! We've never seen each other!" Naruto yells now. His face is red in anger and embarrassment. If possible, the group laughs even harder.

"Just now he fucked you senseless, brat! The leader must lose his touch, eh, that you can easily forget."

Naruto's face's getting redder in embarrassment. He's positive that he's never seen the leader of Akatsuki, yet that disgusting man keeps telling him about it. Naruto is about to punch him when Kiba suddenly stops him. Naruto looks at him strangely; silently demanding explanation how dares Kiba stopping him from punching the insolent man.

"You're lying. The Akatsuki leader is dead already, and now their members scatter around. Akatsuki is at rest."

The man stares at him angrily. He huffs and punches a nearby tree with his fist, sending the large tree tumbles onto the dirt.

"Akatsuki never rest! That monster killed him!" He roars in frustration then, makes even his own comrades shaking with fear.

"Calm down leader, calm down!" one of the enemies comes around the tall man, reaching out to calm him. Unexpectedly, the man's hand grasps the back of his head and beats it against a rock over and over again.

"Calm! Calm?! How dare you!" he says repeatedly as he smashes his friend's head over the rock. The sound of bone cracking resonates around them, accompanied with that man hysterical screams. "I never forget when that monster takes his heart. He burned it. Never forget!"

He lets go off the head and sits on the ground to calm himself then. After he takes several deep breaths, he starts to calm down that he doesn't even mind one Kiba's team member who helps his fallen comrade and starts healing him with his chakra. The rest of the groups remain passive, as their leader.

"Who are you?" Kiba asks him.

"We were once subordinates of Akatsuki. Far below the rank of the members, though. We act like slaves to them, serving them from as target for exercise to everything else. But I highly respect the leader, he was a good man."

At this the rest of the enemies nod their head in agreement. Both Naruto and Kiba look at them in slight admiration. Even tough they look horrible now; they were once ninja with master, and a respectable master at that, at least in their opinion.

"Akatsuki is always at peace as a group of missing nins. We help each other and always served the members wholeheartedly. Until five years ago…" He explains, his eyes starting to show repressed anger and guilt.

"The leader died." Kiba finishes the sentence for him.

"Not yet." He answers back fiercely. "One of the members starts his own quest, just like Orochimaru. He researches jutsu and finally control that monster—the fire!"

"The fire?" Naruto asks curiously. He glances to his side and see that the healing process has over. His friend has awakened.

"Pure fire that looks like a youth. He controls that, and challenges the leader. The battle is fierce. That man alone can fight him equally, but he uses that monster!"

Everyone stay silent then. They're listening to the man's story; the enemies listen to him and recall that horrible event in disgust while Kiba's team listens with cautiousness. This can turn bad anytime.

"That monster drove his hand through the leader's chest and took his heart out! The heart was still beating, it happened so fast that the leader still can reach for his heart weakly! And with a smile he commanded that monster to burn it! Burn it! That burned heart fell as the leader died, and that man stepped on it! He stepped on it! The leader's heart and he stepped on it like a trash!"

The story is terrible, they know it. Killing is very common in their world, but that cruel method is sometimes hardly ever heard. Naruto knows it then, this man is filled with regret. He feels the heavy burden for not being able to help the leader. Naruto almost pity him, almost.

"If I can get you to him!" he points at Naruto. "We can kill him! That bastard!"

"Wait, who is this man anyway?!" Naruto shouts at him.

"Uchiha Itachi!"

As he says Itachi's name, tongues of flames fill the air around them. The enemies gasp in fear as they witness the tongue of flame. Kiba's team also prepares for an attack, although their minds are swarmed with confusion on how they should defend themselves, should the flames attack them as well. The opponents around them start to run, when suddenly their leader lets out full blown laughs. He shouts with harsh voice then.

"Fear not, men. Let it be our death. He doesn't even want to show his face. Still a coward till the end, I see."

They halt their movement and looks at each other. After a brief moment they stand erectly, facing the flames with something akin to confidence as the flames fill more of the empty space on the air.

"Yeah, too many times we run." One of them speaks.

"Too many deaths…"

"We can never revenge after all…"

"Too weak…"

Naruto's eyes widen as the flames turn shapes into blazing red little swords in the air.

"What the hell are you doing?! Run!!" He shouts at them, even to his enemies. Kiba's group starts to run as well. But the enemies root in their spot and make no movement at all.

"Don't worry," the tall man says. "He might've erased your memory, but as I said before you're precious to him. As precious as you to Konoha Anbu Captain should be. He won't harm you, or your friend."

"Wha—" Naruto is about to ask him when suddenly the flames dip down quickly, reaching for their bodies even far faster than their eyes can follow. They find their way through those men's body, burning holes all the way through every part of them. The blazing swords stab their face, chest, arms, and legs one after another; they give them no time to scream as their lifeless bodies fall onto the ground.

Naruto feels his legs become weak upon seeing that gruesome sight, he is about to fall onto the ground as well but luckily Kiba holds him steady and catches him before his fall.

"Kiba…"

"Get up, Naruto. If anything happens to you, Sasuke will kill me!"

Naruto tries to stand up, but suddenly a sharp pain creeps in his stomach, makes him fall onto Kiba's arms again.

"Naruto!"

"Ki-Kiba…my stomach hurts…" he says weakly.

Kiba gathers the blonde boy in arms as he commands his team to go back to Konoha as soon as they can. They channel some chakra to their feet and perhaps as fast as the wind itself, they run back to their village. They have no idea that they've been watched all the time, not by those dead missing nin but by some more powerful enemies. Three figures loom out of the shielding darkness of the forest and look at the dead bodies in mild disgust. One of them starts to come closer and search through their clothes.

"Itachi san. What should we do now?" Kisame says as he inspecting every dead body, hoping to find a valuable treasure underneath their clothes. His partner doesn't answer and he keeps on searching. He smirks widely when he finds a pack of dried herbs; he takes it immediately and keeps it inside his cloak. It's such a pure luck that no fire swords manage to get through its package. He loves herbs so much because they will go well with barbequed fish. Itachi's eyes still linger in distance, towards the distance of Konoha village to be exact, and Kisame knows better than to disturb him at times like these. Apparently, Itachi is thinking about a series of plan ahead and whatever it is it might have something to do with returning to Konoha.

"Kisame, I'm going back to Konoha." Kisame grins to himself. Well, he might not be the one who is gifted with brain in their partnership, but at least he can think. And Itachi's words will mean literally: I will go to Konoha and you can do whatever you want until I call you again'. That's how thing it is.

"Alright, Itachi san. I wonder if I should back to the shelter?" he asks. Itachi doesn't answer him. He glances at him briefly, turns his back and starts walking towards Konoha, with Sasuke following closely behind him. Well, that would mean 'yes'. Kisame sighs heavily, Itachi can be quite talkative when he finds something interesting, but going back to Konoha will always get on his nerves that he can be extremely jumpy. Kisame goes back to their shelter as he has already made some fun plans for himself.

--o0o--

"Captain! Captain!" The sound of loud knocking on Sasuke's door and two Anbu simultaneously calling him from outside his house is certainly not a good way to wake him up. Forcing himself to get up, Sasuke quickly washes his face afterwards and pulls a dark blue shirt from his cupboard before he goes down to greet them. Before he has the chance to button his shirt up, those two Anbu has decided to break the door open roughly. Sasuke pauses on the stairs as he glares at them.

"Sorry for that, Captain. You should come with us!" one of them says as he bows deeply to the Uchiha.

"Naruto san has come home." The other informs him. Sasuke's face remains expressionless, as if he's far more interested to punish them for breaking into his house like that. His heart leaps in joy, tough, when he heard the great news. But his expression soon turns darker when he sees his subordinates glance at each other. Sasuke can guess immediately that something's not right.

"What happened?"

"Naruto san…he's…"

"He's in Hokage sama's care right now. It seems that—"

Before the Anbu can finish his speech, Sasuke has bolted out to Hokage Tower. They look at each other in understanding at their Captain's reaction and start to follow him as well. Sasuke speeds to the tower, he wants to see Naruto as soon as possible. His body protests greatly for being forced to run first thing in the morning, his eyes occasionally demand to be closed again, but Sasuke honestly doesn't care. He cannot even think clearly, there's only one mission for him now: he has to see Naruto even if it's the last thing he do. Finally, after a minute of running he arrives at the tower. Bursting the door open and completely ignoring every person there who are either bow politely or call his name as he passes, he hurriedly searches every door and hall and finally stops just outside the emergency room as he sees Kiba and the rest of his team there.

He practically grabs Kiba's collar tightly in mixture of anger, confusion, and worry then.

"Tell me what's going on!" The Uchiha demands him. Kiba seems to be afraid as Sasuke lets his eyes bleed into sharingan, the three comas are spinning crazily that Kiba's starting to feel dizzy himself.

"We were attacked and Naruto felt his stomach hurts so…" Kiba trails off. Luckily for him, before Sasuke can decide any further of what to do with him, Tsunade steps out of the emergency room. Sasuke's eyes lit up with hope, he quickly rushes after her as she goes into her office. Tsunade seats herself on her chair and crosses her fingers in front of the mouth, looking at the Uchiha sharply.

"This situation never happened before, so you might as well sit and calm down."

Sasuke does as he is told. He reaches the chair in front of her then. He waits impatiently for her to continue the story.

"Uchiha Sasuke, I will give you one mission from now on until one year ahead."

"A mission?" Sasuke asks her. Naruto is sick, something is obviously wrong with him and she wants to give him a mission. He should be with Naruto right now. Sasuke's brain practically screams in frustration, even tough he doesn't show it.

"Your mission is to watch over Naruto, shield him from any terrible sight and deed, and give him whatever he needs. I believe you have enough funds for that, don't you?"

"I…" Sasuke thinks about it for a while. Things can't be worse, right? "I accept the mission, Hokage sama. But what happened to him?"

Tsunade takes a deep breath.

"This thing happens to him because of your fault, Uchiha Sasuke."

Sasuke's face looked like he's swallowed a living eel.

"My…fault?"

"Yes, it's your fault!" Tsunade speaks in slightly harsher tone. She has to hide her smile as she sees Sasuke's eyes sparkle with guilt. It's such a rare occasion to see him like that. "From now on, Naruto won't be able to do any ninjutsu and everything. He won't even be able to perform any of his ninja duties, and he has to rest. No more fighting, no more training and especially no terrible sight around."

Sasuke's pretty confused with that.

"Why?"

Tsunade chuckles softly and walks until she's right in front of the Uchiha heir. She places one hand on Sasuke's shoulder gently then.

"You're going to be a father." She says almost quietly, smile spreads on her lips every single time.

"Eh…wh—wha…" Sasuke stammers, not entirely sure if he hears things correctly.

"You're. Going. To. Be. A. Father." Tsunade speaks one by one as if she's speaking with a child.

Sasuke says nothing more; it's his fault indeed. And Tsunade has the pleasure to watch the perfect shade of ripe tomato on the Uchiha's dashing face.

End of Chapter 6


	7. Chapter 7

The Unfolded Memories  
Chapter 7

Author: Fui  
Editor: AnN  
Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine  
Warnings: yaoi

A/n: Sorry for the long delay, we got a lot of work to do latelyTT

Sasuke walks unsteadily to Naruto's room. The Hokage has ordered the medic nins to move the blonde boy from emergency room into another room, and she has informed them that nothing is wrong with him. He just needs a bit of rest. The Uchiha heir feels thousands of emotions run through his heart and mind at the same time. Just a few days ago he envied Itachi for stepping ahead of him and slightly mourned over himself for the impossibility for the same thing to happen to him because of Naruto. But today, everything has changed. He rarely thought about reviving his clan, moreover since the day he had Naruto. These past few weeks, though, have disturbed him more than before. He knows those three children now: one of them being Itachi's son, and the other two are simply too adorable that Sasuke cannot tear his eyes off of them. Many things had happened.

He pushes the door of Naruto's room softly, afraid that even the slightest sound will awake the sleeping boy. Sasuke quietly takes a chair and sits next to Naruto's bed. His blonde is in deep slumber, that he cannot sense Sasuke near him, but it doesn't matter. Perhaps, it's the best, for Sasuke doesn't know what he should say in case he wakes up. This morning, his life has changed so quickly. He lightly reaches out to caress Naruto soft hair. He's so confused with himself. In his own house, he has taken Itachi's son as captive. His confusion has overtaken him that he actually wants Tooya to never see Itachi. On the other hand, yesterday he met Sora's twin sister and both of them are so cheerful and gorgeous in their own childish way, that Sasuke cannot prevent himself from thinking about parenthood. And here he is right now, facing the possibility of becoming real parent in near future. Everything is spinning around him so quickly.

The Uchiha heir is truly drowned in his thought that he doesn't realize Naruto's eyes flutter open slowly.

"Sa…suke…" Naruto says weakly.

Naruto's soft voice wakes Sasuke from his own thought; slowly he focuses his black eyes to see Naruto only. He grasps Naruto's smaller hand in his, and slowly brings it closer to meet his lips.

"Naruto…" he says softly as he kisses his lover's hand lightly. Sasuke closes his eyes, savoring this precious moment when he feels Naruto is the most important thing in this world. It's not that he's unimportant before, but at this time his world is Naruto's— Naruto's and someone else's that he hasn't named yet. He almost wishes for time to stop then.

"Sasuke, I'm home." Naruto finally says after seeing Sasuke's reaction. It's not the first time, though. The same thing happened when Naruto came back seven years ago.

-,-'-.-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-

Flashback—

"Sasuke! You may not see Naruto!"

Ebisu screamed loudly through the hospital's hallway, still rubbing his nearly dislocated jaw. The Uchiha had come back after training with that traitorous snake Sannin, Orochimaru, and thus he was viewed as a traitor as well. Several Konoha ninjas had fought him so that he couldn't get into Konoha, but they were beaten so badly that they could hardly stand up again. Sasuke had found his way to Konoha Hospital immediately. He could get to Naruto's room easily after asking one of the nurses, but unfortunately Ebisu halted his movement in the hallway. Not wanting to waste more time, he optioned to hit Ebisu squarely on his jaw and proceed to run into Naruto's room.

Sasuke grew angrier as he saw both Kakashi and Kurenai stood in front of Naruto's room, more than ready to stop him from seeing his best friend. His sharingan narrowed into hateful glare as he prepared to attack them.

"Kakashi sensei, Kurenai sensei. Don't stand in my way!" he growled.

"Sasuke, don't force me stop you here." Kakashi answered his challenge. He could see that his student had already tired both physically and mentally, and he could assume that Sasuke's chakra only enough to unleash one weak Chidori if he managed that. His assumption was proven wrong, though, when his former student started to charge his Chidori.

"If you insist sensei, I must show you what I've learned then." Sasuke said as his Chidori became more powerful, the crackling blue chakra full of lighting lightened up the dark hallway in blinding light and the chirping sound of thousands birds probably could be heard even from outside the hospital. Kakashi also started to charge his Raikiri to battle him, but before he can even prepared further Sasuke had released the whole Chidori that he had collected in his palm into strikes of lightning-based chakra to the air around them. Both Kakashi and Kurenai couldn't stand the feeling of thousands of electric whip slashed their body and they fell onto the floor, leaving the door free for the Uchiha to break in. Kakashi managed to stand up again, and he faced the Uchiha prodigy as he entered the door.

"That's…" he said with slightly shaking sound, still locking his gaze with Sasuke all the time, "not Chidori."

Sasuke stopped to look at him closely. "It's Chidori Nagashi. That's one thing that I've learned from him; one out of many other things, sensei."

Kakashi said nothing more as Sasuke stepped into the room, carelessly leaving the door open so that Kakashi may watch him in case he didn't believe in his own pupil. He stares at Naruto's sleeping face for quite some time, before he decided to claim a chair nearby. Sasuke sat down quietly and started to touch Naruto's hair lightly. He had heard that Naruto haven't regained consciousness ever since he was found in Konoha forest, and Sasuke couldn't lie to his own heart. That news made him so worried that he ran away from Orochimaru to go to Konoha. He needed to see him and he wanted it as soon as possible no matter what. When he was there and saw with his own eyes that Naruto had fallen asleep perhaps for the rest of his life, he regretted two things.

One of them was his weakness: he was too weak to fight his brother that he could even take him away. He probably would never forgive himself for that, only God knows what terrible deed the Akatsuki might have done to his only friend. The second thing was to never admit his feelings openly for Naruto. He had fallen for him, to say the truth. He didn't know how, why, or when, but the blonde boy had always been there in his heart and mind; he's someone whom the Uchiha heir couldn't ignore. Through time the feelings got stronger that it started to overwhelm him and he regretted the fact he never said it to him. With care he reached Naruto's hand and engulfed it with his own. He closed his eyes tightly, brought his hand to his lips and kissed it lightly. He repeated his prayer inside his mind over and over again then.

'Wake up, Naruto. Wake up. Please, wake up.'

Naruto made no movement, he was still sleeping peacefully. Sasuke never grew tired of trying though.

'Please, dobe. I'll do anything. Just open your eyes for me.'

Sasuke didn't even realize that Naruto had opened his eyes. Naruto stared at the ceiling, trying to figure out where he was but the thoughts were soon disappeared as soon as he saw the familiar person by his side. Sasuke was there, by his side. He looked so tired; his black hair has lost some of its shine and stuck out in several odd angles. His clothes were also dirty and Naruto could smell his sweat, but he didn't care. He gripped his hand lightly in Sasuke's hold, and that's enough to make the Uchiha realize that his prayer had been answered.

"Naruto…"

Naruto just smiled. Not seeing him for a year it's a pure torture for Naruto, but now that torturous moment had gone. He could only smile; no words came out of his mouth simply because he didn't know where to start. He was also afraid of the truth, the harshness of Sasuke's reaction if he spoke wrong. Sasuke's eyes stared at him for quite a long time before he finally crushed his smaller form in a hug.

The blonde boy seemed surprised. For a moment ago he had all the doubt, but the next moment when he felt Sasuke's body against him the doubt had gone without a trace. He was grateful, for now he knew what to say to him, to the very person on this earth who could understand him.

"Sasuke, I'm home." He said as he returned the Uchiha's embrace warmly. Sasuke smiled as he hugged Naruto even tighter, and those who saw them from outside the door hardly had the intention to ruin their precious moment.

Flashback End—

-,-'-.-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-

"Why are you here?" Naruto asks him as Sasuke seems to have clamed down, he sits upright now with Naruto's hand still in his. Sasuke gives him a small smile before he kisses his hand once again.

"To see you."

"I know that teme. What happened with me?"

At this Sasuke cannot hide his happiness, he moves quickly to hug Naruto. That makes the still weak boy squirms for a bit, but Sasuke is likely never wants to let him go, at least for this moment. Naruto sighs; he's the man whom he chooses to be with for the rest of his life, so he can never complain, right?

"We're going to have a baby, dobe."

Naruto seems mildly surprised with that, but not much.

"So you finally decided to adopt a child? It's about time, teme."

Sasuke looks at him weirdly; before he realizes that Naruto probably haven't had any idea about the situation they're in right now. He mentally smacks himself then.

"No, listen carefully, dobe. Don't get surprised."

"Listen to what?"

"Well, it's…uhm…" Sasuke is at lost of words; he doesn't know how to start. Therefore, he blurts out the truth directly. "You're pregnant."

Naruto looks at him and Sasuke looks back with curious gaze. After several seconds of staring at his partner, Naruto finally collapses again on the bed. Sasuke stands up in surprise, and he does the only thing he knows as the right option now.

"I must see the Hokage again." With that, he rushes out full speed to Hokage's office.

-,-'-.-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-

A week later…

The Hokage has given strict orders that no one beside both Sasuke and Naruto's close friend may know about the pregnancy, at least until four months ahead. Therefore, hardly many people know about it. The main reason is actually because Naruto's somehow known to be very fragile against attack, both physically and verbally. Not only that, his fear and nausea for horrible things also very troublesome that Sasuke has to take care of him 24/7. It's not likely that Naruto never complains about anything as well. This past week has exhausted the Uchiha more than ever. He looks thinner and lack of sleep makes dark circles appear under his eyes.

Four days ago, Naruto and Lee came to Uchiha compound to survey the place. Naruto insisted he wanted to stay there during pregnancy. Sasuke, of course, opposed it and said that he would rent another house in Konoha and served him the best instead of his run-down house. Well, the Uchiha can be as hard as stone when he wanted to. So Naruto cried loudly, and threatened him that if he didn't give him what he wanted, then he would never want to see the Uchiha again. Being a good husband as he is, Sasuke had no other choice left but to cope up with him. Forcibly, of course.

Luckily, Sasuke manages to say to him that he will need some times to prepare his house. He has told Naruto that he needs to fix his roof, clean the unused part of the house, and decorate it. Which are, not entirely lies. He needs to decorate his house, that's for sure. His house is too dark and gloomy, no matter how delightful he is to call it home. It's also a necessity to clean the unused part of the house. His house is pretty clean, as he is a clean-freak himself but the other part of his house, mainly the rest of Uchiha compound is pretty much a disaster. He hasn't done much after the massacre. He only changes his own house to be more agreeable to live in; however he hardly changes anything outside the house. Some torn clan's symbols still can be seen hanging outside several houses and broken windows still hasn't being repaired. Paints are also peeled off and he has to remove some unused objects. Fortunately, no more scent of blood lingers around that place. It has been years already and surely the smell of blood cannot stay that long, can't it?

So he has to think quickly. The problem is he has promised to his lover that the house will be ready for him in less than two weeks. Three days has passed, with him manages to clean only his house (minus Itachi's room, a part which he refuses to touch), garden, and some houses around him (he only changes the outside appearance). That includes he never neglects his duty in guarding Naruto (who seems to be very picky over food, and making pranks over and over again at Hokage tower). Sasuke chooses to guard Naruto himself, while he leaves a dozen bunshin of his at home for cleaning. At night, Naruto also constantly having nightmare, which forces Sasuke to wake up every two hours and comforts him. He never complains, but the fact that the Uchiha himself is having symptoms of insomnia really grants him a new stage of headache everyday.

Sasuke also doesn't accept help; because he's afraid someone might accidentally find Tooya in his house and will lead him into further trouble. He's so busy and tired that he doesn't see the children for three days. Talking about Tooya, he feels like he needs to find a solution for it as soon as possible. It's impossible for him to let the boy go, but the risk is too high to keep in around the house as well. Although he has hidden the boy in a place which probably can never be found, he still has this worry that his plan will fail somehow. But that will do well for later, because now he has no more empty space in his brain to think about it. He still has the ongoing mission to find those two scrolls. At moment like this, he really wants to take a break, watching the clouds as fall asleep just like that. Unfortunately, he cannot do it. Here he is, outside the Hokage tower with a package of ramen in his hands. He has run back and forth from the tower to Ichiraku merely because Naruto has asked for different flavors of ramen. First he asks for miso ramen and then pork ramen, and who knows what he might want for next. Sasuke is really tired.

He's so tired that he never realizes there's someone who's been watching him constantly even since he arrived at the tower earlier this day. The man almost laughs as he sees the young Uchiha heir nearly trips over a stone in his rush, kicks the stone so hard in vengeance that it flies away perhaps for miles then, and mutters bad words as he gets into the tower. When Sasuke has gone into the tower he steps out of his hiding place and stands in front of the tower. Everything still hasn't change much since he left, perhaps the people but never the building and atmosphere. After a short moment of nostalgia, he continues his way to find three children who are so special for him.

-,-'-.-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-

"Sora, be careful when you wash those plates!" Arashi shouts to her twin brother. The sounds of splashing water and clattering plates can be heard noisily, it's so loud that the girl cannot say for sure whether her twin is doing everything nicely. It's been awhile since their brother went away that they miss him so much. Tooya has never gone this long; something could be happened to him on the way. That's why today they decide to search for him. But before that, they need to clean the house and secure it. Arashi has invented some useful things lately and Sora has been pretty nice with his training, so they're pretty confident that they will see their brother again.

"I know!" come the loud reply from the kitchen, accompanied by another piercing sound of porcelain breaking. Arashi winces as she rushes into the kitchen. There, standing with guilt adorning his face, is her twin brother. He's wearing a white apron to protect his blue attire, water is everywhere and the innocent china is laying on the floor in pieces, his hands are holding empty air where the plate should've been.

"Sora…"

"My hands slipped. It's not my fault that the plate wants to run away."

Arashi frowns to her brother.

"You know, if you want to be a good shinobi, you should learn to give more reasonable excuse than that."

This time, it's Sora's turn to look at his twin sharply as he removes his apron. He takes a broom and plastic from nearby closet and starts cleaning the mess.

"It is reasonable: my hands slipped."

She helps him to throw the broken plate away. Arashi takes the bag from Sora's hand and moves to throw it outside. Still, her voice can be heard in distance as she speaks. Their apartment is not quite spacey after all.

"The unreasonable part is: it's not my fault that the plate wants to run away."

There's no reply from Sora. Arashi gets into the house again and sees that the boy is no longer in the kitchen; he has gone into the bedroom to prepare his weapons. With a sigh, she greets her twin.

"You haven't cleaned the kitchen. There's water on the floor."

Sora looks at her as he pulls a windmill shuriken from under the cupboard.

"And don't take that, it's too big."

"I want to." He says as he goes back into the kitchen. Right, he forgets that one. There are droplets of water on the floor, many of them. He looks around and finds no washing cloth. Arashi must've thrown the previous one he used into the laundry basket. But he can always use that. His hands raise up to form a single tiger seal.

"Katon: Water Diffuser."

Fire starts to appear in the air, the air becomes warm and droplets of water which are previously on the floor rise up and float in mid air. Flames cover each droplets of water individually before squeezes it in one move, makes the water disappear along with the fire.

"You shouldn't use fire jutsu inside the house, remember?" Arashi says as she hands him a pocket of shuriken and a dagger. Sora accepts the weapons and secures them in his clothes: shurikens on his thigh and dagger on his waist.

"There's no cloth around. Are you ready?"

"Yeah. I've got everything."

He checks himself again. Everything's in, hopefully. He has the tendency to forget something. Luckily Arashi is always there to help him, but someday it's going to be his downfall. He's quite sure of it.

"Okay, let's go."

-,-'-.-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-

People around the street stop their activities for a while to look at two children who are passing the street. They look at them intensely, some of them squeal in delight, while the others just plainly staring. Sora practically drags his twin around the street, stops in front of every houses and stores, makes a single rat seal and says, "He's not here." They have gone through several houses and stores, and with the way they act, they really earn many attentions.

Sora stubbornly dragging her into a hotel to check, and then he drags her to the house next to the hotel.

"You surely don't have to bring that windmill shuriken, it's too big." She complains as she looks at the blue flower in a small pot in front of the house. Sure thing, the shuriken seems to be very outstanding against Sora's small frame. He has tied it on his back and since he polishes it nearly everyday, the shuriken is gleaming as sunshine hits it."Oh, just be quiet for once." Sora counters her statement.

"I'm not going to be quiet! Sora, just do the next level of the jutsu already, I'm tired. You're dragging me here and there, and everyone in this street is staring at us."

Sora looks at her and then he looks at his surrounding. Well, it's true after all. Everyone is staring at them. Sora sighs and closes his eyes deep in concentration. His chakra arises slightly and in his mind he sees lots of things then: streets, houses, stores, people, and finally his eyes rest upon a sign: Konoha Police Headquarters. He opens his eyes and shakes his twin roughly then.

"I know where he is. Konoha Police Headquarters! Come on!" he says as he dashes out of sight in full speed. Arashi runs after him.

"Wait, Sora! You don't even know where that place is!" she screams at the top of her lungs. Surprisingly, her brother runs back to her.

"You're right; I don't know where it is." He says to his twin. He looks around and spots several young girls chatting at the corner of a cake shop. He approaches them then with Arashi trailing closely behind him.

"Excuse me, could you possibly tell me where Konoha Police headquarters is?" He asks them sweetly, passing them the most dashing smile that he has. The result is immediate, as the girls squeal in delight, faint rosy color paints their cheek.

"You're so cute, can I know your name?" one of the girls, with red hair and make up covering her face, asks.

"I'm Sora. Um, the police…"

"Sora chan, I'm Kanae. Can I buy you a cake or something?"

At this Sora seems mildly confused. The fact that Arashi is glaring behind him doesn't help at all. He has put on a jutsu around him to attract people, especially opposite sex, but certainly Arashi doesn't know it. In her eyes, she only sees her brother flirts with girls, even at times like this. That somehow makes the lovely girl a bit angry.

"Uhm, thank you…but no. I need to know where—"

"Would you go on a date with me?" another girl with sleek blond hair asks him.

"That'd be lovely, but no thank you. The police—"

"Do you have a girlfriend already? You're not, are you? I wonder if you would—"

Well, it seems that Arashi is invisible to them. Sora senses his twin displeasure and he feels like he needs to drop his act.

"I need to know where the Konoha Police Headquarter is. If you don't want to tell me where it is, then I'll leave. Good bye!" He says to the girls harshly. They can only look at him with dreamy eyes, while at the same time being astonished by his speaking. The jutsu can be really overwhelming sometimes and Sora notes himself not to use it too often. He drops the jutsu then.

"You're finished with hem?" Arashi asks him, her eyes twinkling with malice. Sora looks at her briefly.

"I haven't even started. Come on, I'm sure we'll find it."

And just like that, the boy begins to lead the way. He asks people here and there sometimes, but making sure that he doesn't smile and just properly being polite without flirting. Other than that, he also carefully selects elderly people in doing so. After several minutes of running and asking, they arrive in front of the Headquarters. They look around, and they're not surprised to see to trace of their brother nowhere.

"Perhaps he's in the building." Arashi says, her right hand pointing towards the large building before them.

"Maybe." Sora looks at the large symbols on the upper part of the building. "Hey, look at that! It's our family's symbol."

"Close enough. But that one isn't fractured." Arashi mutters to herself.

"You're right. Wonder what that is?"

"Ask then." She says without the slightest hint of interest in her tone.

"Okay." His eyes dart around to find someone who seems to be intelligent enough to share a bit of information. He crosses the path of a female shinobi quickly without being offending her.

"Excuse me, can you tell me what that symbol is?" he points to the red and white fan at the center of shuriken symbol on top of headquarter.

"That," she explains. "is the symbol of Uchiha clan—the great clan of Konoha who found this headquarters and used to be the main police force here."

"Huh? Used to?" Sora asks again.

"Well, since that terrible massacre, perhaps there are only two Uchiha left. So, there's no one here now."

"I see. Thanks." Sora casts his eyes on the symbol once again as the shinobi left them. Arashi comes closer to her twin and pats his shoulder lightly.

"Come on, Sora. Let's go find Tooya. It's getting late."

Sora nods in understanding, and begin to walk into the building. Just as fast as his foot makes the first step, Sora spins around again and snatches his big shuriken, blue eyes gazing menacingly as he looks for a dangerous presence. Arashi does the same; she takes out a short dagger which seems to be suspiciously gleaming in greenish color.

"Enemy, only one. But I can't see where he is." Sora says.

"Use your sharingan. It's okay, no one is around."

Sora does as he was told, and lets his eyes bleed into sharingan. And he can exactly see who it is now. Among the thick darkness of shadowy trees, there he sees him. He quickly approaches him and grabs him lovingly, which to normal person he seems to be hugging empty air. Arashi understands immediately and she runs to her brother, embracing the figure that she cannot see. The genjutsu fades away, revealing a tall, handsome dark-haired man whom they hug so feverishly.

"Sora, Arashi." The man speaks as he bends over to scoop the girl into his arms. Arashi circles her arms around his neck and leans her head on his board shoulder, while Sora kisses his cheek.

"Father." Both of them chorus.

End of Chapter 7


	8. Chapter 8

The Unfolded Memories  
Chapter 8

Author: Fui  
Editor: AnN  
Disclaimer: Naruto isn't mine  
Warnings: yaoi

A/n: So sorry for the very long long delay, we got a lot of work lately

Several girls, who are chatting noisily in front of a sweet-selling shop, immediately fall silent when they see him. Their eyes follow his physical features completely—from his perfectly carved facial composure, his tall seductive body, until the way he sways himself so gracefully. Even the way his long hair plays by the wind is simply gorgeous. This man is an almost perfect copy of the Konoha ice prince that they know.

"Look at him." One of the girls says, while watching him intensely. The man has bought several lollipops for the children next to him.

"He's so handsome."

"You're right. And look at them." Another girl says. She points her hand toward a pair of twin children. "They're lovely, I wonder if they're his brother and sister."

Sora looks up from his lollipop to his father as they leave the shop. Sure enough, his father has somehow decided to discard his weird-looking cloak, and now he is wearing much lighter sets of clothes, which consist of high-collared and sleeveless black shirt, together with khaki trousers and white sneakers – making him appears younger. The blue-eyed boy starts to wonder whether 'adorable' is a special trait that every Uchiha has. Well, at least all of his brothers and sisters show that.

"What are you thinking about?" Itachi asks him. Sora shakes his head in denial, while licking his lollipop. Itachi frowns when he receives no answer from him. Arashi senses her father's displeasure and answers in her brother's place instead.

"He's thinking about you and us."

Sora turns his head at her. "I've told you not to read my mind!"

"I didn't. It's just too obvious with the way you look at father and me."

"Oh, really?" Sora asks in mocking tone, not entirely convinced with his twin's answer. The same thing has happened too often for him to believe it as a coincidence. They glare at each other long enough until Itachi points at a familiar store down the street.

"Ichiraku!" Sora squeals happily and races toward the store. Arashi doesn't run after him, she has several things to discuss in private with her father.

"Now I know." She starts. Itachi stops walking and look at her. "I know why you send us here."

Itachi passes her a weird look. As expected, Arashi has started her own investigation about this matter.

"This is where our clan was. You wanted us to start anew from here, without looking at the past anymore. You wanted us to know everything and to leave them behind."

"That's pretty deep analysis, as expected from you. But that's not all."

"There's more?"

"Much more." Itachi says nothing more. He leads the way to the store and Arashi knows better than to rush everything at once. She sighs and follows her father reluctantly. When they arrive there, they notice that Sora has already ordered a bowl of miso ramen.

"Hungry?" Itachi asks him. He has no objections with ramen, fortunately. Back then, when he was an Anbu himself, it was not rare for him to spend his time here with his comrades. It's not particularly his favorite food, but ramen is agreeable. Surely it reminds him of certain someone who gave him such wonderful children.

"I'm famished." Sora says as he receives his order of ramen. Itachi sighs and orders for Arashi and himself a bowl of chicken ramen for each. As they wait patiently for their order, Itachi hears faint steps of someone approaching behind him. He steals a glance towards a man who beckons the owner of Ichiraku to take his order.

"One miso ramen, please."

"Is it for Naruto, Iruka sensei?" the daughter of Ichiraku's owner, Ayame, suddenly speaks.

"Yes, it is."

Ayame chuckles lightly. "Then perhaps you should cancel your order."

Iruka looks surprised. "And how could that be?"

"Sasuke has already brought him ramen, lots of them. He seems to be pretty busy lately. Do you mind telling us what going on?"

"Well…sorry, I can't give you information about that. It's secret."

"If you say so," Ayame takes two bowls of chicken ramen from his father. "So, are you going to cancel your order?"

"I'll just take that for myself then." Iruka says as he sits next to the counter. His eyes follow the chicken ramens, which are being delivered to a young man and a girl next to him. The young girl immediately reaches for chopsticks and begins eating the noodle, while the young man does nothing. Iruka is startled when the man turns to see him, but he manages to compose himself.

"Have we ever met before?" Iruka asks Itachi in curiosity. Itachi intends to say nothing, but he decides that it will rise Iruka's suspicion and get his cover blown too soon for his liking.

"I've been around." He simply answers, not confirming Iruka's thought at all. "Why do you ask?"

"Nothing." Iruka studies the young man's façade closely. Really, how can someone resemble Sasuke that much? Unless he's Itachi, but Iruka shakes that thought away. Itachi, whom he knows, will never speak to anyone so casually like that. And he really doubts he can walk around in Konoha just like that, with no weapon and looks like an ordinary citizen. Nevertheless, the young man resembles Sasuke too much for him to be doubtless. Whatever doubt he has, though, vanishes as soon as he sees the man takes a handkerchief from his pocket to wipe the boy's mouth, who sits next to him. The boy is clumsy, he eats his ramen sloppily and the man wipes his mouth clean with tenderness that he surely doubts Uchiha Itachi has on him.

"Are they your brother and sister?" Iruka asks him, seeing the resemblance between him and the two children next to him. The man looks at him oddly before replying.

"They're my children."

"Eh, children?" Iruka looks surprised. "You can't be more than twenty three but you've got children these big?"

Itachi promptly glares at him, makes Iruka squeals with embarrassment.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you."

"That's okay." Itachi replies, putting up a decent conversation for a while. "I'm married in my youth. Can't say that's the best thing, but now that I have them I feel much better. They're my pride. You have no children, I suppose?"

"I don't."

Itachi almost smiles playfully; it's so fun to taunt his former comrades once in a while. They hardly know each other except by names back then, but Itachi always assumed Iruka to be a shy person. And now that he has the chance to mock him, he won't let him go. He sees the children have already finished their meals, so he stands up to pay for the food. He leaves his own meal barely touched. He leads them away from the shop, and turns to Iruka.

"You should find your spouse, Iruka sensei. I think he's been waiting for you long enough."

Iruka's face, if it's possible, becomes redder than ever. But before he has the chance to retort the man's remark they have disappeared, leaving several green leaves floating in mid air.

"A Konoha ninja, eh?" Iruka mumbles to himself.

-,-'-,'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-',-'-,-'-,-'-

Sasuke has busied himself with lots of works lately as presumed. He's been here and there; doing lots of things and still, his attention over his pregnant lover has never decrease. After he's given ramen to Naruto, Sasuke goes downstairs to see the Hokage and discussing several things. What a tedious moment the discussion is, the Uchiha heir will gladly give anything to quicken it but Hokage is the Hokage, and her speech is not to be questioned. Sasuke is not ready to lose his ninja status yet. Such bliss to him when it's finally over and Tsunade allows him to go back to Naruto's place. Sasuke decides against knocking the door, as he assumes Naruto is probably sleeping. So he paces lightly, closes the door behind him as he enters the silent room. His assumption is right, Naruto is sleeping peacefully on the bed and with further inspection he realizes that Naruto hasn't even touched his ramen.

'If you're not going to eat it, why should I bother bought it for you?' Sasuke mutters in his thought while pulling a nearby chair. He looks at the lovely scenery through the window; nightfall will come in several more hours, and he still has lots to do at home. His clones are busy and probably dead-tired at this moment; he can feel his chakra begins to deteriorate but still he has no idea of how much progress that they have made. Well, not until he cancels the jutsu and let the clone disappear anyway. Whatever it is, he really hopes that everything goes smoothly.

He let his eyes wander to the magnificent form before him afterwards. Naruto, indeed looks more beautiful than he ever before. Maybe it's because he holds so much hope for him now. Sasuke carefully traces Naruto's lips with his fingertips, slowly as not to startle the sleeping blonde awake. Despite his soft touch, Naruto awakes— his eyes slowly flutter open, and what he sees then really stuns the Uchiha heir. Naruto opens his eyes and stares at his lover. Sasuke, taken aback by the obvious difference in his gaze, can do nothing but to stare back at him in amazement. Naruto's red eyes lock on his dark ones deeply before he speaks.

"Uchiha…" Not even once Naruto ever calls him by his family's name. Naruto manages a small smile as he drags himself into sitting position. Sasuke gently guides him, but Naruto repels his hands afterwards.

"I'm still capable of taking care of myself. I don't need your help, Uchiha Sasuke. You're not him."

"Naruto…"

Noticing the vague look of pain on Sasuke's face, Naruto moves forward and catches Sasuke's chin within his hands. "I'm not Naruto."

"Wh—" Sasuke is about to protest, but he quickly realizes who he is talking to at this moment. "Kyuubi?"

This time, Naruto chuckles lightly. "Uchihas are indeed smart."

Sasuke says nothing more. Kyuubi certainly has a reason to take over Naruto's body like this. To say that Sasuke's isn't feared by Kyuubi's sudden appearance will be an understatement. He has never been in this situation before, so he tries his best not to show any weaknesses towards the creature who shares his beloved body.

"You look so much like him." Kyuubi says, still holding Sasuke's chin. "Through my imprisonment, I can see you clearly— what you've done to Naruto, and how you treat him. You're a nice man, Uchiha."

Kyuubi captures Sasuke's lips in a firm kiss then. The Anbu captain does nothing, in fact he even begins to stiffen himself. Even tough his partner is physically Naruto but in fact he's not at this moment. He's Kyuubi, and kissing him will be a great betrayal for Naruto. After a short while Kyuubi lets him go.

"Even in the same blood, runs different passion." Kyuubi seems to ponder by himself while touching his lips.

"You will see me again, Uchiha Sasuke. After all," Kyuubi traces his hands on his belly lovingly. "These children are mine as well."

With that, Kyuubi closes his eyes and he collapses back onto the bed. Sasuke's quick reflexes allow him to catch his lover and cradle him against his chest.

"Naruto… what exactly…" He says to no one in particular.

-,-'-,'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-',-'-,-'-,-'-

Itachi silently examines the small apartment room where his children have spent their days lately. The apartment isn't spacious at all, but it's cozy, neat and agreeable to live in. He absentmindedly lifts small porcelain with the figure of fire dragon carved on it and immediately realizes that it has genjutsu on it. The fire dragon suddenly flares alive and gnaws at Itachi's arm. However, the older Uchiha heir does nothing; he simply watches the dragon disappears into his vein. The carving remains the same afterwards; it's just a genjutsu anyway. He has always taught his children to use genjutsu to protect something important, so this small pot certainly has something valuable inside of it. He reaches inside the porcelain with care and finds several small black balls – smoke bombs.

"Those are modified smoke bombs." Arashi says to him as she put tea cups on the table. She pours jasmine-smelling tea into a cup and put it next to Itachi. He doesn't touch the tea; his attention is still in the bombs. Arashi understands that his father wants further explanation even tough he doesn't ask for it.

"I crack the bomb open and add fire-based chakra inside it. That chakra will trigger fusion reaction and allow greater explosion. It works well with fire-based ninjutsu. You can take it, father."

Itachi puts the bombs back into the porcelain. He reaches for his tea and takes a sip.

"You need it more than I do. Where's Tooya?"

Arashi is about to answer the question, when suddenly Sora comes in with a long blade in his hand. The girl looks at her twin questioningly.

"Aniki is gone and we're going to look for him. We can't let him alone out there, father. Who knows there's a children-eating monster out there and it eats him. Aniki might be strong, but against big, bad monster he won't stand a chance."

"Sora, there's no such monster." Arashi tries to drill a bit of logic in her twin's brain.

"You said there is." Sora argues back.

"That's just a story. A legend. A fairytale."

Itachi only looks at them. His children are his pride, but sometimes they really make his head spins with their childish remark. Come to think of it, even as a child he hardly ever has that kind of argumentation. That's one of the reasons why he can't stay for long in the shelter. And what's wrong with that long blade anyway? It seems that Sora's hobby of collecting weapons hasn't wavered at all; even tough he's not around to give him new weapons.

"I'll find him. Come, Sora." He opens his arms, indicating Sora to sit on his lap.

"Okay!" Sora jumps into his arms immediately and hugs his father. Itachi stares at Sora eyes with his Mangenkyou Sharingan activated and makes few seals behind his son's back. Chakra flares around both of them; it allows Itachi to see what he's searching for. Through Sora's mind, his eyes wander through familiar street and building, seeing past people and things, and finally he sees a place that he cannot forget. Frowning a little, Itachi continues to search until he finds where his oldest son is. He cuts his connection with Sora's mind then.

"How is it? Do you find him?" Both Sora and Arashi asks him at the same time. Itachi looks at his twin children suspiciously, but he says nothing.

-,-'-,'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-',-'-,-'-,-'-

To say the truth, Itachi has several purposes of being in Konoha at this time. The first is to see his children; he had left them in the forest near Konoha and asked Tooya to take care of things while he collected the scroll. It wasn't the best option around, seeing that probably his children might accidentally show their bloodline limit and thus triggers suspicion among the villagers. As much as the commotion might be entertaining to him, he certainly doesn't want anyone to know their existence, not yet. His steps bring him closer to Uchiha compound, but his face remains as passive as ever. When he steps in though, a wave of sickness washes over him. It's been a long time, indeed. Back then when he tried to retrieve Naruto, he also deliberately entered the Uchiha compound when his little brother wasn't around. It's still the same then: the same loneliness and sadness, they seem to be haunting this place even since he killed his own family. And Sasuke has been in it since then, like a caged bird. And Itachi isn't going to say sorry for that. He had made the right decision, even if it's painful for them.

He looks around and notices that several very tired-looking Sasuke are cleaning up. They pick trash and fix windows, some of them even going as far as scrubbing the floor and trimming the grass, despite the coldness of the night. Itachi doesn't cover himself with strong genjutsu, he merely alters his surrounding in a way so that no one can see him. Not pretty much of a technique, but for those bunshin to not realize him it means even the real Sasuke is quite disoriented as well. Judging from those replicas' condition, they won't even last for another minute. And Itachi once again prove his credibility as a genius, when they collapse and disappear in around thirty second.

'He's still as arrogant as ever. Even when he cleans up.' Idly Itachi wonders why on earth Sasuke doesn't want to ask for help? Surely anyone would be glad to help him. Whatever the reason is, perhaps it's none of his business at all. So he steps faster into his old home, which he has no difficulty at all in finding it. The door gives no protesting sound as Itachi's fingers touch them, he easily slides in and passes through several rooms and hallway until he reaches a dead end at the corner of a room. Well, it's a dead end for anyone's eyes, but his. With his sharingan he can see a hidden door, cleverly sealed with genjutsu. He opens the door, revealing another hidden passageway for him to go through.

'How fool of you to hide my child here, ototo.' Itachi speaks to himself. 'Tooya is strong, but if I find him cannot forgive your actions…I won't hold myself back.'

He stops in front of another door then. The door is locked with several chains and padlock, and upon closer inspection he sees that the lock can only be melted with high-temperature heat. He mentally calls for the guardian, and in no time feather-like flames start to appear around Itachi. The numbers of flame increase dramatically around him and then in a swift wind-like motion they disappear, revealing a red-eyed Sasuke who clings onto Itachi.

"Open the door." Itachi commands him. The Fire raises his right hand, and the padlocks and chains become ablaze with reddish color— just like the color of forged blade at blacksmith's. Slowly, the padlocks falls, parts of it still gleaming when Itachi pushes the door open. Inside is a huge room, with single bed and furniture. There on the considerably large bed, Tooya lays asleep. There is a tray of food on the table, half of it remains uneaten. He touches his son's dark hair lightly then.

"Tooya." He calls him. The boy's eyes flutter open slowly, and he smiles as soon as he realizes who had woken him up.

"Father?"

Itachi sighs as he helps him to sit up. Tooya flinches slightly when he sees Sasuke behind Itachi, remembering the fact that he's the one who hurt him, but he soon relaxes again when he realizes he's the Fire -- his father's guardian. He gives him a small smile, which the Fire returns appreciatively. Itachi looks around the room favorably; at least Sasuke doesn't keep him like an animal here. Tooya's quite healthy and he smells nicely, he dressed himself fancily and the half-eaten food allows him to see that Sasuke has feed him nutritiously. The only thing that makes Itachi frown is the bandage which is wrapped on his body.

"You're hurt?" Itachi asks the obvious thing. Tooya casts his eyes downwards.

"I'm lost in battle. It's my own fault for being so weak, father."

"Come, Tooya."

"Yes."

Itachi lead him out of Uchiha compound, not a word comes out of them then. He walks slowly, enjoying the almost eerie silent of the night. The Fire walks closely behind him. They walk all the way towards a lake, which happens to be not quite far from the compound.

"Make a shield." Itachi tells him. The Fire lifts his hands and a fire-based shield occurs in no time, protecting them from the outside world. Itachi takes out a piece of old paper from his pocket and reads it carefully. He counts his step towards the western side of the lake and stops right in front of a particularly large rock. He calls Tooya to come closer then.

"Can you perform Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu?" He asks his son. Tooya nods eagerly, seeing that his father is going to do something great. Itachi leaves him there, once again with great caution he counts his steps again, this time towards the eastern side of the lake. They stand at the edge of the lake, taking west and east point to make sure that the fire will get right at the center of the lake. They make the same hand seals, and blow the fire at the exact time with their sharingans activated.

"Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu."

Two fire balls crash against each other with loud exploding noise and massive amount of foggy mist arise as it touches surface of the lake. Itachi raises his right hand and channel some of his chakra right into the center of the fireball, adding weight to the blazing flame and forces it down to the water. Deeper and deeper it goes until finally the fireball reaches the bottom of the lake. And there Itachi sees it: two scrolls which is sealed by crystal-like surface that even the fire cannot break it.

"Protect me." He says to the Fire as the youth nods his head. Itachi dives into the flame valiantly, which seems to be a totally suicide attempt if Itachi was a lesser man. But fire doesn't touch even a single strand of his hair, doesn't burn his clothes because he's protected by the guardian of the fire itself. As his feet touches the rocky surface of the lake's depth, he takes out his kunai and cut his own hands, letting the red droplets fall onto the crystal. He watches as the strong crystal starts to break: a small crack at first, then it gets bigger until the crystal breaks in two, allowing him to take the two scrolls. Itachi goes back up, setting his feet on the water as he clutches the two scrolls tightly within his hands. The fireball gradually disappears and as the shield is being taken off, Tooya runs towards his father's side.

"Water-based scrolls?" he asks. They walk away from the lake, moving towards the apartment. Itachi gives the scrolls to the Fire, who quickly disappears in a burst of flame.

"Yes, I need them to complete the rituals." Itachi answers him with a particularly large grin, which surprising even his son. He has a plan, and a very neat plan at that. What can be better than to confuse his little brother for a while, while making his children a better shinobi at the same time? Definitely nothing. Itachi has already formed a nice arrangement in his mind, and he's going to realize it soon. "Let's go home, Tooya."

-,-'-,'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-'-,-',-'-,-'-,-'-

"You want us to do what?!" Sora half-yelled at his father. Itachi winces vaguely, mainly because Sora's standing too close with his sensitive ears and his voice has increased an octave due to his yelling. Sometimes, their mother's trait on them is really torturing him. Sure enough, Itachi has gathered his family inside the apartment and tell them about his plan, which seems to be rejected at first hand.

"Father, you said we have to learn by ourselves. Only an Uchiha can teach us formally and that means only our family can teach us." Arashi interrupts, trying to argue Itachi's decision. Itachi sighs and pulls out a short scroll from his pocket and opens it. The three of them recognize the scroll as summoning scroll and takes a step back when Itachi performs hand seals to activate the summon. There's a small 'poof' sound and smokes as a black box locked with golden chains and lock appears on the paper. Itachi takes the box and hands it over to Tooya as he takes a piece of paper from the table and starts scribbling something.

"Er, what's that?" Sora's curiosity kicks in and he immediately tries to reach the box. Tooya doesn't give it to him, he simply holds the box at an arm's length, taunting him silently to peek at it. Sora activates his sharingan as Itachi glances at him inquiringly. "Huh, money? That's a lot."

Itachi resists his urge to roll his eyes as three sets of calculating eyes sets on him.

"You need to go to the Academy, of course you will need money. During your stay, you can use the name of Uchiha, but as usual don't let anyone know that you're my children. Sora, you will go to the academy and help Arashi. Tooya will train with me and Arashi you will learn independently. Remember Arashi, never let anyone knows your inventions." He explains to them while keeps scribbling on the paper.

"But," Arashi begins, "how can we use the name of Uchiha when we can't be seen as an Uchiha?"

Itachi stops writing then, apparently have finished with whatever he is doing and folds the paper neatly. He looks at them with something akin to playful mirth in his eyes, and a small smile adorning his lips – a rare and chilly smile at that, so much that his three children take a step back in fear.

"You're going to stay at my little brother's place."

End of Chapter 8


	9. Chapter 9

Sasuke wakes up groggily as he hears loud thumping noise outside. It's eight o' clock in the morning and it's not exactly his favorite time to wake up, not to mention the fact that he had been greeted with shocking fact last night -- Tooya's gone. How the boy managed to escape from the sealed room, it's always a mystery for him. The room is sealed with impossibly broken locks, yet when he went home last night the padlock has fallen on the ground, torn in pieces as if it's just a common lock. But he was too tired to deal with that matter. Let Tooya loose, he even may call Itachi to get revenge if he wants, Sasuke didn't really care.

The pounding on the door is getting more and more vigorous, and so the Uchiha heir is forced to get off from his comfortable bed irritably. Not bothered to put any shirt on, he goes down the stairs quickly, preparing to scold anyone who has enough courage to disturb his sleep. But not even in his dreams he ever meets two young children carrying two overly large luggages.

"Sora, Arashi?" he asks. "It's so early, what exactly…"

"Sasuke san." Sora says after examining him briefly from head to toe. "You look awful."

"You see Sora, that's what you get if you overused your chakra and you lack of sleep." Arashi concludes the situation accurately, successfully surprising Sasuke because normally children can't do that.

"What are you doing here?"

"We're going to stay here." Sora answers casually while trying to drag their luggages in. "Can we come in? It's cold out here."

"Sure." It seems that he has no other options but to let them in. Arashi goes in first, leaving both of them outside with the luggages. Sasuke is about to help Sora when suddenly Sora lifts the heavy burden easily. Once again it surprises him considering Sora's small frame, but upon closer inspection Sasuke can see that the young boy has given a fair amount of chakra to his muscles and hands – the exact amount needed to lift his burden. Sora apparently has great chakra control for someone of his age. Sasuke begins to wonder when he ever told them where he lives. He follows them inside then and after a moment hands two mugs of warm milk that he had made.

"Care to enlighten me now?"

Both of them look at him and Arashi initiatively talk on their behalf, since Sora has already drown himself in his share of warm milk.

"Well, father wants him to get into Konoha Academy, but he can't apply us there by himself. That's why, he asks us to stay in Konoha with someone that we can trust. He also asks us to give this to that person, which would be you."

With that, she digs into her pocket – one of the many pockets she has on her light green overcoat, which Sasuke idly wonders what's in them as they're quite full themselves. Reluctantly he receives a folded paper from her small hand, and starts to read the neat handwriting on it as the girl searches her luggage to find something, which happens to be a gold-chained black box. While Sasuke reads the letter, both of them sits huddled at the corner of the sofa, their eyes greedily examine the unfamiliar surroundings. Arashi speaks as soon as she sees Sasuke has already finished with the letter.

"So, can we stay with you?"

Sasuke takes a deep breath. Things can't be worse, right? Apparently, he's going to have two more people in his house for only-God-knows-when-they-will-go, but he can't deny that request. After all, what harm can two smart kids give to him?

"Find your own room in this house. But you may not enter the room with Uchiha symbols," he points to a scroll on the wall with big Uchiha symbol, "and the chained room at this corridor." By that, he means Itachi's former room but he's not going to bother to explain it to them. "You have exactly fifteen minutes to unpack and come back here, we're going to get some breakfast."

As they rush off with great speed, leaving their luggage behind, Sasuke also goes to his own room to take a shower. This is going to be a tiring day, he noted to himself.

*

"Can I come in?" Kisame lightly taps at the door which leads to Deidara's room. He brings a small package of food, the one that he bought on his way to the shelter. A soft rustling noise can be heard from inside before he hears an almost cheerful reply.

"You can come, un." come the smooth voice of the younger man. Kisame opens the door, seeing Deidara puts several heavy-looking books into a pile. Kisame walks closer to him and helps him eagerly while Deidara sits on a comfortable leather chair. There's a quiet tapping sound against the window then, and the tall man moves to find one of Deidara's creation – a small nightingale clay bird that rests on the windowsill. Kisame holds out his hand and the bird leaps onto his hand. With care, knowing the small bird can explode anytime now, he hands the bird to Deidara. The young man smiles slightly as he looks at the bird closely. Deidara lets his chakra flares as he assimilate information contained within the bird's lifeless eyes. Then with a small 'pop' the bird has vanished.

"Itachi has collected the scrolls. All of them. And he's going back with Tooya." Deidara informs Kisame, whose eyes widen in surprise.

"You're spying on him again?" Kisame taunts him and the blonde smiles sheepishly.

"How can I not?" He asks him. Kisame smirks knowingly and gives Deidara the small package that he has carried for him. He doesn't need to open it to know the content, though. "Grilled fish?"

"You know it." Kisame puts the fish on nearby plate – Deidara always put extra plates in his room, seeing that he needs as much nutrition as he can take lately. Deidara observes the still warm fish with amusement, already his mouth water due to the sweet smells of it. Kisame takes a bite of the fish with a fork and offers it to Deidara, which he immediately takes.

"Splendid." He says truthfully. "I'll be delighted to taste this delicacy another time."

Kisame raises his eyebrows. "Those literatures must've gotten into you. Speak like usual, will you?"

"Itachi san will like me better if I speak like this, un."

"Trust me, he won't. Nothing you do will increase or decrease his feeling for you."

Deidara pouts his lips at Kisame's remark. "It won't be hurt to try."

There's a loud knocking sound and the door almost being toppled over when two young kids, around the age of six, runs towards Deidara with great speed that they almost tackle the unsuspecting missing nin. Nevertheless, Deidara isn't a shinobi for nothing as he catches both of them in his arms.

"Papa!" both of them says while trying to break free from Deidara's grasp. Deidara puts them on his bed then, while ruffling their heads lovingly. One of them shows him a chakra controlled puppet that he makes, which is oddly enough that the puppet is made of clay. Deidara nods his head approvingly and smiles. He kisses the boy's brow lightly before reaches for the other boy's head and kissing him as well.

"Well done, Akira, Hikaru."

"Thanks, papa."

"I have to go now, papa will hate me if he waits for me. We're going to train."

"Okay, let's make a puppet again later." Akira answers while snuggling closer to Deidara, while Hikaru calmly let himself go. Kisame walks closer and peers at Akira closely. It's been a while since he saw him; he hasn't changed at all. Still the same dark hair and eyes, much like Itachi's but with Deidara's happy-go-lucky personality, the kid's certainly a sight to behold. Deidara lifts a small portion of the fish with his fork and feeds Akira. The young boy squeals in delights and takes another bigger bite. Kisame's looking forward for more fun in the shelter as Akira starts to initiate 'touch-the-blade' contest against him. The boy pokes at his Samehada with his sharp kunai over and over again, tries to hit every protruding blade correctly. Kisame smiles evilly as he pulls his Samehada.

"Play outside." Deidara says to his companion. "And if you break a leg of him, I won't forgive you."

"Hey, don't worry about him. I don't want to feel that blasted Mangenkyou Sharingan either." He replies as he takes Akira outside to practice, or play as he calls it.

*

Deep in a forest near the Sound village, a man is walking strangely as he drags a set of heavy objects covered with dusty cloth. The sound of his steps resonates through the silent forest while his dragging leaves a deep stretching mark on the ground. The air is thick with nauseous stench and his labored, heavy breaths almost add the impression of pity. He comes closer to what seems like a cave, where another young man stands right in front of it. The young man calmly watches him; occasionally he fixes his glasses over the bridge of his nose. The man drags his burden and presents it before him, and he bows his head low at the presence of the young man.

"A gift from Karasu sama, he says you can continue your experiment with these…" he opens the package, and there, three bodies of teenagers, slightly rotten with fleas flying all around them, can be seen. The young man steps closer then. Without touching the dead bodies, knowing they have expired and thus will serve no further purpose for him, he turns back.

"You can bring them back to him." He says evenly without looking at him. "I need fresh objects for my experiment."

"He says he can no longer provide bodies for you."

He smiles. As he has expected a long time ago, that fat-ass is really of no use. A simple task such collecting bodies and he has already cowered in fear. Really, it's getting more and more difficult to find decent subordinates these days.

"Tell him," he tells the messenger. "If he can't meet my needs, then he may no longer be in my service."

"I will," the man says as he stands up and starts wrapping the bodies again. "I will take my leave, Kabuto sama."

Kabuto says no more as he steps into the cave. His steps take him to a rather secluded room at the back of the cave. It's his chamber, rich in weird aromatic essence and various-sized bottles nearly at every corner of his room. Kabuto discards his cloak and climbs up his bed carefully. He reaches his hand towards his pillow, where the decapitated head of his former master lays. No, he wasn't his master, he is his master. Even though Orochimaru is dead now, Kabuto still can feel him around him. He can still feel his overwhelming presence wherever he goes, in whatever he does, and sometimes even in his dreams. Yes, his Orochimaru is still alive.

He lovingly secures the head within his warm embrace, caressing his long dark mane within his fingers. Slowly, he turns Orochimaru to face him, and kisses his already cold lips. Kabuto yearns for experiencing the warmth upon those lips again, but that can wait. As soon as he's able to slay Itachi, he will join him.

"Orochimaru sama," he whispers softly onto that unhearing ear. He has seen a snake gets into the room. "Manda's messenger is here. Look, he brings the last Lightning scroll for us."

His dark eyes light with anticipation as the bluish green snake crawls on its belly, getting nearer to him. He takes the scroll from its mouth and shows them to his master.

"It's indeed the last scroll. Orochimaru sama, soon you will be revenged. Please, be patient. Please…" he voices out with his hoarse voice as he holds his cry inside. "Soon, I will be with you…after I take Konoha and others down with me."

*

Sasuke had taken the kids for breakfast at a nice sushi restaurant downtown after a moment of debate that continuous consumption of ramen is bad for their health. He let them take whatever they like there, and even some to bring home. It takes a fair amount of money to do that but it doesn't matter to him since he's quite rich himself, moreover the kids' father had given him money as well. The three of them trots out of the store happily: Arashi has asked him to bring her home while Sora says he has some friends to see. After they go on their way, Sasuke is left alone and he decides to see Naruto. Standing up in front of the Hokage Tower, Sasuke ponders on how to tell his beloved about his newly acquired children. Of course they're neither his children nor Naruto's, but they're going to live together for a while and Sora is going to enter the Academy under his name. The Uchiha heir simply can't ignore that fact. With thoughts swimming in his mind, Sasuke enters the building carelessly, almost bumping Kakashi on the way.

"Sasuke."

"Wha— Kakashi."

"We need to talk." The copy nin inquires him. Leading the way to a deserted place at Hokage Tower, he gives Sasuke no option other than following him. The tall nin leans himself against a wall, while Sasuke stares at him inquiringly.

"So, what is this all about?" he asks. Kakashi pulls out a small scroll from his pocket and throws it at Sasuke. After a moment of reading, Sasuke gives the scroll back to Kakashi.

"And are you here to tell me I'm responsible for it?" Sasuke snaps at his former teacher.

"No, you've had your alibi. You were at Hokage's Tower at that time."

"And who can confirm that?" he asks sarcastically.

"In case you've forget it, we have Anbu watching the tower. You have the whole squad on your back. And the library is guarded."

There's a thievery act at Konoha Library, with three water scrolls being the missing item. What infuriates him is the fact that one of the guards saw him enter the library. Sasuke really thinks that the blame is on him, but fortunately his peer shinobi are wise enough not to judge blindly. However, the Anbu Captain really has this unnaturally creepy feeling about things to come. If it's not him then…

"Kakashi, is the thief…red-eyed in any case?"

He looks up in thoughts. "Now that you mentioned it…yes, he's red-eyed."

Sasuke rushes off to the Hokage's office then. It doesn't take him longer time to find out that it was the fire elemental guardian who stole the scroll last night. Kakashi trails after him immediately and both of them arrive at Hokage's door in emergency situation.

"Hokage sama…"

Tsunade looks at them expectantly. "Glad you report, Sasuke, Kakashi. Three of the last water scrolls had been stolen last night, and since we failed to get the fourth, the only remaining scrolls are those with forbidden jutsu. The twin jutsu."

"The twin?" Sasuke asks. Kakashi raises an eyebrow at that.

"The power of water, of life and death. The power to heal and kill."

"I don't understand." Kakashi admits.

Tsunade sighs and reaches for another document on her table.

"I found this a while ago when inspecting the library." She tosses the file onto Sasuke's hands. "The twin jutsu has been protected by Uchiha clan for a long time. It was so cleverly sealed and hidden that no one knows where and how to take it. However, since we've lost the other scrolls, the pursuer will after those two scrolls as well to complete the rituals."

Sasuke peers at the pictures in that document curiously. The scroll was black and white, with kanji of 'life' on the black scroll and 'death' on the white one. As he reads the document further, he finds out that the one of the jutsu can heal a person instantly while the other one can kill instantly, or slowly if the caster wishes it to be so. Terrifying jutsu indeed.

"Your clan was chosen because you have affinity to fire, and thus won't be able to access water easily…" Tsunade seems hesitant for a minute, before continuing. "And only an Uchiha can break the seal of them."

"How?" Sasuke inquires.

"We don't know. It's one of Ichidaime's legacy, and he doesn't tell a soul apart from Uchiha clan themselves. He said 'every Uchiha knows the secret to unlock, from mother to children."

"And our mission?" Kakashi poses the Fifth Hokage.

"Sasuke will search for the scroll immediately, since he's the only Uchiha there is, and you will help."

"I'm not the only one." Sasuke murmurs menacingly, his eyes start to bleed into sharingan. Of course, he is referring to his unborn child, and also Itachi's child. Yes, there are going to be more than two people in Uchiha clan in not so distant future. But naturally, Tsunade is unaware of that.

"You're not." Tsunade says. "But we sure can't ask your brother for a help, right?"

Sasuke says nothing more as he excuses himself. He will be delighted to see everyone's face when the Uchiha will once again rise.

*

Deep inside, a place where no one can access apart from Naruto and the nine-tailed monster within him, both Kyuubi and Naruto are standing in the middle of bubbling water. The air around them is solid with chakra and behind them, a caged bar with a piece of paper attaches on it, still unmarred like it was years ago. Kyuubi freely takes another form, his more human-like form – a gorgeous long fiery haired youth with swishing nine bushy tails behind him. His deep red eyes are dancing with excitement as something catches his attention.

"Who's that? Standing outside the door, pondering with thoughts."

"It's Sasuke, you know it."

"Hmm…" the fox literally sniffed the empty air around him, his fiery red strands glowing wildly in anticipation. "Uchiha Sasuke it might be, but can't you feel it…the nice scent around him, so close…"

"Your sense is fooling you, Kyuubi. Could it be that you have any difficulties in sustaining our child, that your senses are overloaded?" Naruto asks in mockery tone. "It's the first time for you, right? To have my child and Sasuke's like this?"

Kyuubi's eyes flashes with anger.

"It's not the first time! And how shallow of you to think they're only —" The Kyuubi stops in mid sentence as he realizes what he's going to say.

"What?" Naruto asks. Kyuubi averts his gaze from the holder, as he walks back to the cage. Seeing as the Kyuubi no longer wants to talk to him, Naruto shrugs and walks away himself. Kyuubi stops walking as he reaches the bar of his imprisonment. With trembling hands, he touches the bar…

"How small-minded, you human… you don't even know I'm protecting you…and you surely don't understand the burden I bear…"

*

"Naruto?" Sasuke calls as he knocks the door softly. The newest information is still spinning in his head, making him dizzier as he thinks about it further – something, two dangerous jutsus, the one that can only be freed by the power of an Uchiha. Who can really have the power to wield such dangerous weapon? Moreover, there's almost no clue about it. He could've suspected Itachi but with so many Uchiha around, he doesn't exactly know his brother's activities out there either, it's kind of hard to predict. He turns the doorknob carefully. Naruto is sitting on the wooden chair next to the window, enjoying the warm sun. Smiling slightly at Sasuke, he makes an effort to stand and welcome his husband, but the taller nin is right beside him in an instant.

"I miss you." Sasuke kisses his forehead lightly. Naruto frowns as he senses something different on him.

"Um, Sasuke...Kyuubi said that there's something different about you today." The blonde looks at him sharply. "I don't want to believe him, but I smell you differently. Whom did you see?"

"I met Kakashi on my way." Sasuke answers. He had received information from Tsunade that there's a possibility for Naruto to take over some of Kyuubi's ability, so he isn't panic about it. But still, he hasn't decided yet on how to tell Naruto about the kids.

"It's not Kakashi. It's like a distant smell, sweet and alluring. Not you."

Sasuke takes a deep breath.

"Naruto, listen. There's someone…"

"Are you cheating on me?" Naruto taunts him. Sasuke seems to be panicked in an instant. He stutters while waving his hands, his cheeks burning in embarrassment.

"No, no. Please believe me, dobe. I'm not—"

Naruto calmly silences him with a small kiss. Seeing Sasuke like this always refreshes him. It's rare for the Uchiha heir to do that, but when he deals with Naruto something interesting always happens. And the cool man only does that for him, because of him. It somehow makes Naruto feels proud.

"So, what's the story?"

"You see, someone entrusted their children to me and I just can't say 'no'."

"Oh. Is it because you're their father?"

"What?! No, listen dobe. They're not mine, but…"

"But?"

"I feel close to them, that's why I can't refuse them."

"Feel close?"

Naruto takes time to listen to Sasuke's rambling story, which is by far, extremely interesting. The younger nin doesn't know why, but he certainly feels the warm feeling radiating from the Kyuubi inside of him. It's almost as if the nine-tailed beast is smiling. Naruto's consciousness drifted off, and in an instant Kyuubi takes over. He closes his eyes so that Sasuke won't see the red irises within his eyes. He lays his head on Sasuke's shoulder, and immediately Sasuke's arms wrap around him warmly.

"Can we meet them?" he asks, inhaling the scent deeply.

"Sure, I'll bring them here tomorrow." Sasuke answers while kissing Naruto's head lovingly. It relieves him to know Naruto easily accepts the children, he doesn't know what to do if it's otherwise.

*

"Look, you can just leave some money here. New kid doesn't need much money in Konoha."

Sora frowns. Two girls are hiding behind his back fearfully, and these fierce-looking-but-definitely-nothing-thug-wannabes are trying to take their money, which he cannot be too happy about. He debates whether he should be the hero and save the day, or run for his life.

"D'ya hear me kid?! You can even share your lovely girls. Two girls are too much for you, right?"

That a bit crossing the line, even for his standard. But still, he makes no movement. He looks at the two teenagers in front of him carefully, and measures their strength. Well, apparently he can defeat them with ease but still he debates with himself whether to show off or not.

"Hey, you can at least answer, right? Which family do you come from anyway? You're not worth to be a shinobi."

And that the straw that breaks a horse's back. With lightning reflex, Sora jumps forward and aims his fist directly at the first teenager's face and grabs a kunai from his back pocket. He quickly throws it to another one, effectively hinders his movement as the kunai is embedded itself quite deeply by the scruff of his collar and hug him on a nearby wall. The younger boy takes the advantage of his oppressor's situation and delivers carefully aimed kick at his stomach and almost as quick, kicked the other one as well. Their faces grimace in pain, and Sora merely smiles victoriously.

"Never insult my family." He states clearly. The two girls stare at him with amazement in their eyes, while the boys look at him hatefully. He makes his way back then, with two girls follow closely behind him.

*


	10. Chapter 10

"That was crazy!" Arashi exclaims when she hears Sora's story. Stories about her brothers' greatness always amaze her; she is, after all, an Uchiha as well. It's unfortunate for her that she cannot be as victorious as them, but listening to stories is always good. With a smile she reaches a rather thick book from underneath her table and places it on Sora's lap.

"What's this?"

"A book." Arashi simply answer.

"I know it's a book. What's inside?"

Arashi is tempted to say 'papers' but she decides not to taunt her twin anymore. "It's about Konoha's Academy. Sasuke san has arranged for me to be able to read any books, and I find it in the library. It should be useful for you."

Sora looks at the book and tries to measure it with his fingers. Realizing that the book even beats the thickness of his pointer finger, he shivers in disgust. "No way I'm going to read that, are you trying to make my head explode? Why don't you read it first, and tell me later?"

"I've read it."

"What?! You've read it?!" Sora sounds disbelief her. "Even when father's alone, he never reads that much in a row."

"He didn't, because he's too busy studying other scrolls as well." Arashi answers.

"Hey, ever wonder why you got the brain while I got the power?" Sora taunts her with a smile. Arashi wraps her arms around his neck lovingly then.

"Because we're twins."

"That's true."

Sora embraces his beautiful sister and smiles. Arashi knows him, like he's her, which is true. They hardly ever being separated since birth and their family is always there for them. What's more to wish for anyway? Blinding light shines through the window, illuminating the bright room as Sora's eyes catch something strange. Shadows. He frowns. At the far end corner of the house, he sees shadows. Not frightening, as he often hears from his brother, Akira, about shadows of the darkness. He activates his sharingan, and the shadow, in his eyes, now seems to move gracefully away, leaves nothing but open space. Sora begins to think about how creepy Sasuke's place is then.

"Why do you activate it?" Arashi asks him.

"Nothing." He replies. "Hey, didn't you feel something weird here?"

Arashi looks at him closely. "Now that you say it, I feel like I'm not alone while I'm reading this book."

Suddenly, Sora feels like his throat becomes extremely dry. He pushes her away and goes into his own room.

"Can we share a room?" he asks hopefully.

*

Itachi quickly dodges as various-sized kunai fly towards him. The weapons are fast, but they're still far behind his quick reflex. A clay puppet welcomes him almost immediately after he lands, and it sprouts extremely thin chakra strings to capture him. He moves among the masses of threads, punches the clay hard and destroys it, sending remains splatter everywhere. Another clay figures, this time in the shape of little spiders, come closer to him from almost every direction and Itachi knows better than to just step on them. He jumps over trees, with the spiders follow closely behind him in great speed; it's amazing to know that Itachi manages to avoid a flying sword on his way, kicking the sword, while with his kick he makes the sword change its way and spiraling, cutting dangerous chakra threads and split two clay puppets in half before finally embedded itself so deeply in a tree that anyone who see it will doubt whether the sword can be taken back or not. The attack ceases then.

"Come out of the bushes." Itachi commands in a bone-chilling tone.

Three children come out to greet him, each of them hide in different bushes. They look exhausted, drying leaves sticking into their hair and clothes. They look at each other and smile, once again they end up in the bushes together, well, it's better than in the river like before. Itachi stands before them proudly without even a strand of hair out of place.

"Nice team-tag. However, Tooya…" Itachi look at one of them with a sword in his hand. "You're too proud with your sword-mastering ability. It's not enough yet to be proud of."

"Yes, father." Tooya replies, his eyes busy scanning his other sword, which is on the tree. Itachi turns to the other one with structured bag on his back, and dirtiest clothes compare to the other two.

"Akira, you can't control more than two big clay figures yet, you'll lose your focus. And you made three, hundreds if you include the spiders. Focus on your teamwork next time."

"Yes." Akira says, while promising to himself to learn from his papa more. Itachi turns to another boy, with fiery red strands among his midnight hair. Loose chakra threads are among his fingers, clearly indicating he's the one who launched the attack earlier.

"You shouldn't make empty puppets, Hikaru. Learn from Sasori more."

"I understand."

It's not long before the silence is broken with loud applause from empty air. Kisame walks closer as usual with his large Samehada hanging on his back, behind him is a smiling Deidara with many towels in his hands. Itachi picks the offered towel and uses it to clean off the dust from his clothes, while the three children eagerly take the towel to wipe their faces. Deidara looks at the Uchiha heir and deliberately lays his head on his shoulder. Itachi says nothing, but he flinches and softly cradles Deidara's face in his hand as he feels the younger nin's chakra has decreased.

"You're weak." His voice seems uncaring, but Deidara can see almost visible warm and concern in his eyes.

"I'm sorry, un."

Itachi shakes his head slowly, the tip of his fingers traces Deidara's cold lips carefully. He shudders, feeling the tingling sensation those fingers evokes through his lips and Deidara closes his eyes, savoring the warmth.

"No, I'm sorry. I've left for quite a while."

Deidara looks at him and quite surprised to see Itachi's eyes dancing with passion. He blushes and inwardly thankful that his children are too busy with Kisame in figuring out how they will pull Tooya's sword from the tree bark, otherwise they will see his blush, and tease him. Itachi leans close, whispering in the shorter nin's ear with his deeper, more seductive voice.

"Shall I make it up to you?"

*

"Itachi san…" Deidara whispers softly as Itachi attaches his skillful lips on his neck. He's thankful for his husband's comeback, and cannot be happier than to feel this magnificent body close to his. Slowly he brings his hands into Itachi's dark hair and undoes the red string which holds his hair. The black curtain falls unhurriedly, covering his rather cold finger. Itachi erects himself slightly, without breaking his sweet kissing, begins to take off his cloak and clothes. As he breaks the kiss, Deidara closes his eyes. Itachi doesn't surprise himself when he sees Deidara's lovely bluish-green eyes have been replaced by cold, dark-blue eyes.

"Uchiha, finally you come. It's been a while." Deidara speaks in a rather intimidating tone. Itachi glares at him coldly.

"I'll feed you my chakra soon."

Deidara laughs. He laughs so hard that he falls backward on the soft mattress and tears form in his eyes.

"Uchiha, Uchiha." Deidara finally says, still between laughter. "Your chakra is important to me, but you should treat my host carefully. I don't want to see him collapse in exhaustion anymore."

That takes Itachi's attention fully. "Deidara fainted? When?"

Deidara put his fingers in front of his lips in thoughts. "I guess when he's about to take those towel."

The Uchiha heir decides not to make any comments over that.

"You're so quiet. I'm waiting, Uchiha." Deidara leans closer to Itachi, skillfully sneaking his hands to feel the defined muscles on his chest. Itachi catches his hands and kisses them softly while locking his eyes with Deidara's.

"Deidara's the one I'll make love to, not you."

Deidara smiles and steals one chaste kiss from Itachi before finally relaxing his posture and closes his eyes. Knowing the situation fully, Itachi begins to kiss him for real: slowly, even with his eyes closes, Deidara's hands creep onto Itachi's back, pulling him closer as Itachi sensuously devouring every bits of his cavern. Warmly, the Uchiha pulls him against his chest again, while locking his eyes with Deidara's soft ones as he guides him slowly to lie underneath him. Itachi takes off the blue sash which holds Deidara's clothes together, rips them apart slowly before finally laying his head on Deidara's stomach, trying to listen for heartbeats.

"I love you…" the blonde nin says tenderly. Itachi nods and pulls himself up, he places a soft kiss on Deidara's closed eyes then.

*

"Sasuke, you promised me yesterday…" Naruto says threateningly to his husband. "You promised…"

Sasuke once again loses his composure and begins to stutter. "Dobe, I know. But listen, I…I've been busy with this whole Anbu business. And about the Academy, I also…"

"Enough with your reasons. When are we going to move to your house? It's been a year—"

"It's not a year yet, just weeks—"

"Yeah, weeks! And where are the children?!"

"Well, they…"

"What?"

"Are here, Sasuke san." Another voice answers from behind the door. Both Sasuke and Naruto turn their head and see two children, each of them is wearing identical red clothes. Naruto is struck with amazement, seeing how gorgeous they are with shining dark hair and blue eyes. The boy steps forward and stands next to Sasuke, circling his arms around his neck and kisses him.

"I'm Sora." He says cheerfully, while still hugs Sasuke like a stamp on an envelope. Sasuke doesn't mind the hug, or even the kiss, but he carefully gauges Naruto's reaction; he can be really possessive sometimes, no, Naruto _is_ a possessive dobe. The girl comes closer then, her long silky hair flowing behind her as she moves.

"You should not kiss Sasuke san, Sora. I'm Arashi, nice to meet you once again, Naruto san."

"Eh, what's wrong with kissing him? I love him."

Arashi's eyes narrow dangerously. "I know, but father will—"

"It's okay, he won't mind that I kiss his b—Ow. Ow. Ow."

Naruto watches the childish fight with a smile. The young girl, Arashi, has pinched his brother's waist and now Sora glares at her hatefully. However, Sora's sweet facial expression is not made for scolding, and therefore he makes such a cute pout.

"What is it this time?" he asks angrily.

"Checking your fat. It seems that you've gained weight."

"I . Have . No . Fat." Sora states.

Sasuke ruffles Sora's head lovingly, sending his spiky hair even more unruly than before. Sora glares at Sasuke, but the Uchiha heir only smiles. Sora smiles too then and moves to lay his head on Sasuke's broad shoulder. Naruto says nothing, but he can see the way Sasuke treats them, they must have been something special in his heart. Already he can picture the dark haired shinobi being a great father, taking care of their future children the way he does with these children, with so much love and care, and such tenderness that people will start asking themselves whether this is the same ruthless Anbu captain that they fear and admire in the battlefield.

"Naruto?" Sasuke calls him softly as he sees Naruto's eyes seem distant.

"Ah, yes. Well, you can sit over here too." Naruto offers to Arashi, Sora has seated himself comfortably on Sasuke's lap, but the girl has nowhere to sit. Therefore, it will be completely logical to offer her a seat. Arashi sits next to him then, and at that time Naruto realizes how silky the girl's hair seems to be. Unconsciously, he caresses them, running his fingers through the velvet curtain. Arashi lets him, and Naruto is entranced with the beauty in his hand. Somewhere in his mind, he can recall the same likeness of tender touches circling him like a waterfall, but at the same time, giving him a feeling of being dominated and pleasured. He wonders what that is.

*

Iruka frowns. He has been told the craziest thing in his life – a plan on holding a duel inside the Academy, newcomers versus seniors. He really begins to think that the feudal lords out there are out of their mind already. The juniors after all, they're only newbie; it will be such a wonder if they manage to even run away quick enough. Iruka can feel more wrinkles ruin his brow. He checks the list of this year's candidate and yet with minutes pass he becomes more and more confused. Whom he should send to deal with the seniors? A folder catches his eyes then. Signed by Uchiha Sasuke himself, this stunning boy is going to be at the Academy under the name of Uchiha Sora. He carefully stares at the boyish features of the dark-haired boy. He is likely normal, with perfect height and weight, and definitely charming face with sweet devilish smile on his face. And his eyes are the color of clear sky, so wonderful that it immediately reminds him of Naruto. Now that he has the image of Naruto on his mind, Iruka starts to think how closely this boy resembles Naruto and Sasuke. Then he remembers something else. He is exactly the same boy whom he met at Ichiraku several days ago. And to his horror, he can recall the boy's father, who is almost similar in looks with the fearsome missing nin, Uchiha Itachi. Standing up, he grabs the papers and documents which are needed and goes directly to Hokage Tower. Where Naruto is, he is bound to find Sasuke as well. He should warn them, that boy's father might or might not be Uchiha Itachi, but it always better to know possibilities beforehand.

*

Sasuke hears the hurried steps of Iruka towards Naruto's room. Completely ignoring his former teacher's arrival, he resumes his previous activities of hearing Naruto's stories about D-rank missions that they have shared together back then. Both Sora and Arashi are listening to his story attentively, once in a while one of them comments on those events. A soft knock is heard from the door and Sasuke mutters a 'come in.' When he comes in, Iruka is rendered speechless. His earlier worry seems diminishing the moment he walks in to the scene before him: Sasuke is sitting on a chair comfortably, seating an active, squirming boy on his lap with a smile, while another young girl sits on Naruto's bed. They are smiling to Iruka, and Naruto even waves for him to come closer.

"Iruka sensei!" he says cheerfully. Iruka can only smiles back.

"Hello, Naruto, Sasuke. They are…"

"I'm Uchiha Sora!" the young boy beams proudly as he can use his full name in front of everyone, he jumps off Sasuke's lap to run towards Iruka. He circles him and grabs his hand rather forcefully. "Come, mister. You must hear what Naruto san says."

"Don't bother, it's just old stories of our missions." Sasuke replies.

"I'll pass then. I've heard them hundred of times."

"Not hundreds, Iruka sensei."

"I'm sure you're here not just to check on us." Sasuke says, after watching the folder in Iruka's hand.

"You're right."

Iruka wants to tell him about Uchiha Itachi, but seeing these children up close in their presence so happily, he just cannot bring himself to ruin that moment, therefore he tells them about the duel. Upon hearing his problem, both Naruto and Sasuke's face darkened by every second. Castrating those heartless lords might not be such a bad option right now. 'Making a fearless young shinobi at early stage by introducing them to life and death situation beforehand' is simply not strong enough reason to conduct such a dangerous attraction. A duel should be done by professionals, but amateurs! They even permit the use of weapons and jutsu. That's completely horrible!

"That's crazy! The new students will cower in fear!" Naruto half-yells, feeling somehow angry. Sasuke nods his head. "No one will want to fight an opponent who is much stronger than they are. No one."

"You're right. The new students…perhaps they cannot even run fast enough to avoid shurikens." Iruka says. "They're out of their mind. But nothing can change this. Naturally, they say the seniors should not harm them, but accident can happen anytime."

"This… every family will participate this year." Sasuke speaks up after he looks at the folder briefly.

"Yes. Including yours, every family will." Iruka says, stressing on the word 'yours'. Sasuke looks at Sora, and he nods as well. Sasuke knows the reason behind this immediately.

"They want to conduct this event to fire up our fighting spirit. Every family will rush their children to be the greatest, and thus it will produce even better shinobi. They can also see which students hold the most potential. That way they will train them to be elite."

"You're right. But if the newcomers hurt themselves during the duel, it will be a great loss. And if they cower in fear they will disgrace their family's name." Iruka replies while looking at Sora. To his surprise the boy stands in rage, his blue eyes shine.

"I will not disgrace Uchiha name, never!" he growls menacingly. Arashi watches him carefully as well, however, she still thinks that Sora will be able to control himself. "Sasuke san, I will join the duel."

"Just don't kill anyone." Arashi retorts, earning another growl from Sora, and shocked expression from others.

*

Sasuke doesn't take the children home as Oruka offer to bring them to Uchiha compound.

"He's brave. That Sora boy. He knows you just lately, and he already defends the name of Uchiha like that." Naruto smiles at his lover, his hands absent mindedly caresses his stomach. "I know you love Uchiha very much, Sasuke and I want our child to be brave just like him. It will be wonderful."

"You're right." Sasuke comes closer to him, and kisses Naruto's brow lovingly. Slowly, he brings his hand upon his spouse's belly and traces it lightly. The Uchiha heir can feel another life grow in there, his and Naruto's, and he really thinks nothing can surprise him beyond this fact.

How wrong he is.


	11. Chapter 11

"Remind me again, why do we need to do this?" Akira asks as he practically drags his wooden puppet around. His papa has given him his old puppet, complete with sealed weaponry and poisonous blades, but this puppet is so heavy beyond imagination. He grumbles and that really annoys his siblings, who also carries burden of their own. Tooya sighs and put his luggage on the ground rather harshly.

"We need to strengthen our teamwork. If this keeps up, we will disappoint father." He replies.

"Right!" Hikaru puts his structured bags next to Tooya's and pulls three bird-shaped clays from his bag. "So, what do we do now?"

"First, let's calculate your best time in reaching the other side of this mountain, with three bird-clays at once." Tooya commands. He sets his time nicely and put his luggage on his back. Akira also does the same, shouldering the heavy puppet and both of them mount different bird-clay as soon as Hikaru drops three birds on the ground and whispered 'Kai', making the birds instantly large enough to carry a person. They mold enough charka at their feet to make them stay on the bird when they fly.

"Here we go." Hikaru shouts as the three bird-clays fly higher forward. He tries his best to maintain the direction and speed, with occasional shout of 'left', 'right', 'look out', 'higher' and else from his brothers. By the time they reach the other side, both of his siblings are holding their white birds for dear life.

"You're not…careful enough." They say to his through their shaky breath. Hikaru pouts and reaches inside his bag again, this time taking a suspicious-looking lion-like figure with wings. He grins evilly then. "If you don't like the bird, the griffin might be better. It's just that I haven't tried this one yet."

"The bird it is." Akira replies, still eyeing the figure. Well, it seems like its wings are clipped.

*

One month later…

Sasuke feels proud of himself. Taking Sora to school for the first time surely reminds him of his own childhood, especially at the very same moment when he came into the Academy. At that time, his father almost didn't attend the opening ceremony. If it wasn't because of Itachi's help, then his first day of school wouldn't as pleasurable as it was back then. It wasn't exactly pleasurable, but bearable, Sasuke has to remind himself. Sora is just too busy checking his backpack over and over again, while Arashi tightly holds Sasuke's hand. It seems that she's afraid of other people, moreover with so many people fully packet in the stadium, where they are at this moment. Some duel has finished already, and Sora's turn becomes closer and closer. The duel looks friendly though, even if the use of weaponry and jutsu are allowed, most of the seniors only fool the juniors with bunshin and scare them enough with simple mist. So far, no one gets hurt.

"Next participant: Uchiha Sora."

Sora grins and immediately jumps down from the second balcony. He really enjoys the surprised gasp of the audience, who think the boy might break a leg. He smiles even wider, but his smiles instantly disappear the moment he recognize his opponent. The same thug who tried to bully him days ago.

"So, you're an Uchiha. No wonder you're so jumpy about your family."

Sora's eyes blaze with fury. He narrows his eyes at the enemy (now he really considers the older boy in front of him as an enemy) and fingers his scroll inside his pouch carefully. The other boy doesn't give out such a calming aura, and so Sora thinks revenge should be on his mind. It doesn't matter, though, he can always win, with or without the scroll. He really hopes that boy doesn't get on his nerve enough for him to use the scroll, Arashi has reminded him to be 'low-profile and not using the sharingan' beforehand. A loud shout of 'Begin' can be heard from Shiranui Genma and he prepares himself for the upcoming attack. Seeing shurikens flying fast to his direction, he decides to move away. Adding the right amount of charka to his feet, Sora jumps high and lands smoothly on the ground, he can perfectly hear the shurikens struck the tree behind him.

"You still need to learn throwing shurikens!" Sora calls back. He purposely taunt the other boy as he growls and Sora finds more shurikens flying faster on his way. He runs again, careful enough by not letting any shurikens graze him. The other boy is getting more annoyed. He stops his throwing and makes a single seal to summon mist. The entire stadium is instantly covered with mist, a stage where previous participant, no matter how good they are, has been forced to admit defeat.

"Now you can't avoid those shurikens!" he calls from somewhere in the mist. Sora scowls darkly, the mist has preventing him from getting a good sight of the older boy, and obviously he's nowhere near his father's level, who can battle nicely even in the most clouded mist. He can hear a single shuriken flying near him and he moves quickly to another path. More and more of them come, and Sora can only avoid them by moving a bit further than he was. Suddenly he trips over a red string around his ankle. With careful observation, he realizes that the ground around him is almost full with red strings, which are embedded from one shuriken to another. To his horror, those strings are too close to his feet.

"You can't go anywhere!" the boy shouts. When he receives no reply from Sora, he cries out again. "You can't run like chicken, Uchiha! Give up!"

Sasuke's eyes blaze with fury. No one can call an Uchiha a chicken and get away with it. He wonders whether this boy has a grudge against Sora earlier. Arashi leans closer to him and getting his attention by tugging at his shirt.

"He bullied Sora days ago. And Sora beat him to pulp." She explains. For an instant, Sasuke is amazed. She can answer his question nicely, even tough that said question is only spoken inside his head.

"I see. But Sora will win, right?" Sasuke asks with a smile.

"He will against an idiot like that." Arashi answers. Somewhere in the mist she can see her brother's charka fills up the air. Sora fumes, he pulls out a scroll from his pouch and opens it. As he says 'Kai', two large-sized shurikens appear in mid-air and both of them begin to blaze. He attaches the special wire that Sasuke has given earlier to the shurikens and starts to hover them quickly. Gradually, the mist is lifted and in the stadium now he can clearly see where the older boy is standing. With careful measure, Sora throws the shurikens to his direction. Wide-eyed, the boy doesn't move quick enough to avoid them, but luckily Genma moves faster, deflecting those dangerous shurikens onto the ground.

"Never insult my family!" Sora warns the other boy. The boy shakes with fear, Genma eyeing Sora cautiously, and Arashi begins to panic when she feels Sora's charka still dancing around him. She knows the sign – sharingan, and so without any thoughts, she lets go off Sasuke's hand with a burst of charka and runs towards her brother from the staircase in great speed.

"Sora, stop!" she practically shrieked while running down the stairs with a rush. Everyone turn their heads when they see her; Arashi is running with all her might, her breath feels burning in her lungs and her feet aching. Sasuke looks at her closely with his sharingan and he can tell that her charka circulation is quite uncontrollable. Chakra leaks out of her in wild manner, hurting and pressuring in several places. Sora also looks at her and the moment he locks his eyes with his, Sora's charka goes back to normal and he immediately appears next to her.

"Arashi, arashi…" he calls desperately, kissing her face over and over again.

"Sora, the promise…" she says before she falls unconscious. Sasuke, and many other shinobi from his genin time, rush down the balcony almost at the same time. And so, the match ends horribly with chaos and whispers.

*

Hinata carefully checks the girl in front of him, her byakugan has been activated from quite a while ago and she is almost positive with its accuracy. Yet, what she sees right before her eyes makes her confused. This girl, Arashi, has two different charka sources and both of them intermingled messily inside her body.

"How is she, Hinata?" Sasuke asks with his deep, worry-coated voice. Hinata pushes down a lump in her throat before she answers.

"She'll… be awake in a moment."

Which is not entirely a lie, Arashi is going to be awaken soon, but Hinata doesn't feel the urge to tell Sasuke about that messy charka circulation. She hopes Sasuke hasn't been suspicious about anything.

"What about her charka circulation? Does your byakugan see something?" he asks.

Hinata draws an exasperated sigh, there goes her hopes.

"It's a bit…complicated, Sasuke. Per-perhaps you should ask Tsunade sama about it?"

"Tsunade? Can't you fix it?" Sasuke is almost shouting in his surprise.

"I can't."

*

"She's a hanyou." Tsunade explains with a heavy sigh. Sasuke's dark eyes widen considerably.

"A what?"

"Hanyou. Half-demon."

"So, that means…the daughter of a demon?" he asks again.

"Not necessarily. It's just absurd to mate with a demon; however, mating with a Jinchuriki is not."

Sasuke thinks about the possibility. If he manages to get Naruto pregnant, so can other people with other Jinchuriki. Come to think of it, there are nine Jinchuriki in all. Then the reality hits him like a ton of bricks: his son or daughter is going to be like that as well, since Naruto is a Jinchuriki!

"I know what you're thinking." Tsunade says, and Sasuke retorts her with a glance that says 'Oh, yeah?' "Not all Jinchuriki can get pregnant easily, the demon itself has to accept his alpha male. And by that, I can conclude that her father is a very powerful nin, to make a demon bend to his wish like that."

Sasuke grins proudly inside. Isn't he at the same boat then?

"You must feel very proud, Uchiha." Tsunade grins back. "From what I can see, her father is also someone with bloodline ability. Just be careful."

"You're telling me to be careful?" Sasuke asks skeptically. Tsunade looks at the Uchiha genius carefully. Sometimes, it's really such a pain talking with the Uchiha, he's too smug for his own good. She comes closer to him quickly, and gives him a good smack on his head. Sasuke remains in his spot, knowing the Hokage won't hurt Naruto's husband in any way. And so the smack lands rather painfully on his head.

"This can happen anytime. Her twin has good charka control, but she doesn't. Perhaps she can't control her charka at all."

"I see."

Sasuke leans closer to Arashi, and scoops her with ease in his arms. He bows deeply to the Hokage, expressing his gratitude, before he goes to the exit.

"Are you taking her home?"

"Yes, when she's awake, I guess she'll be asking for Sora."

Tsunade nods in understanding. When Sasuke opens the door, she realizes that a boy has been waiting outside. Worry is written clearly all over his face, and his big blue eyes immediately shine with delight as soon as he sees Sasuke.

"So, this is her twin?"

Sora looks at the young Hokage and smiles a bit too forcefully. "I'm Uchiha Sora, Hokage sama."

Tsunade smiles back. Seeing him up close like this, she can see clearly how this boy, and his twin as well, resembles Sasuke and Naruto so much. His eyes are big and they have the color of clear-blue sky. His hair is spiky, just like Naruto's but the girl's hair is cascading down beautifully. And both of them have Sasuke's hair color, although Sasuke's is colored with flashes of dark blue here and there, while theirs is more likely adorned with the color of darkest brown.

"Sasuke san, let me carry her."

Sasuke hands Arashi to him carefully, and Sora accept her with ease as well, having delivered fair amount of charka into his arms. He bows to the Hokage, before running quickly to the Uchiha compound. Tsunade asks Sasuke then.

"Do you know who they really are?"

"I don't. And I don't need to." He answers assuredly, even as curiosity creeps in his mind.

*

Kabuto looks at the carefully arranged lightning scrolls in front of him. It's almost time, he reminds himself, and so he must stay strong to the end. Calling for the guardians after they haven't been called for hundreds of years can be quite pesky sometimes, but Kabuto has prepared for he worst. It's all or nothing. He opens another scroll on his laps, the one which is filled with nothing but seals. Nearly a hundred seals, he doesn't bother to count them all, carefully arranged in numbers – a very complicated series of seals which have to be performed carefully, there's no room for mistakes. And so he starts with the first one… to the end.

As soon as he has made the final sign, he put his palm on the ground, as ones might do when they perform kuchiyose no jutsu. It is then, chaos happens. Mist flying everywhere from the place where his hand and the ground is connected. Seconds after, flashes of lighting begin to descend from the ground, striking here and there ferociously. Just like Limelight, a famous jutsu from Lightning country. One of the lightnings strikes him directly, sending him shivering on the ground.

'Weak.'

Kabuto looks around, he perfectly hears that voice, yet there's no one that he can see.

'You're too weak. Why do you call me?'

Now he knows, the voice is being spoken directly inside his head, like telepathy. That voice, he should answer it.

"I need power. For revenge!"

'Revenge has always been the case. Can't you human be a bit more entertaining?'

"Please, you have to help me. My enemy has the Fire." He calls desperately. Then he can see clearly as the mist disappears all at once. A bulky man, not exactly a man, for it is made of lightning, appears in bright yellowish form levitating above the ground. Kabuto, still frozen in his spot, looks at it with awe.

'Fire. Yes, I know he's around. It's been a while.' It murmurs almost quietly as it slowly descend down to his eye level. Its face comes closer and even though Kabuto cannot perfectly see its facial expression, he knows that the creature is calculating him. It's deciding by itself whether it will help him or not. He waits.

'Seems interesting. I'll help on one condition.'

"Anything."

'Your soul.'

"Fine." Kabuto answers immediately without any hesitation in his voice. Then seconds later, he feels weird as its mouth descents on his. He feels electrocuted, not enough to hurt, but sufficient to make him shiver. He wonders if it wants his soul, then why should it do something which reserved for Orochimaru only. Kabuto starts to think whether he must pay more than what he intends to when he feels great charka pressure pushes him onto the ground painfully.

*

"Can you tell me who you really are?" Sasuke asks to both children. Arashi has woken up a moment ago, and at this time they all gather in her room, with Sasuke wants an explanation. Sora remains quiet. He knows he's not smart enough, therefore any mistake in replying may lead to the exposure of their secret.

"We are truly Sora and Arashi, that's our real name." Arashi begins her story. "Our father is a shinobi, he teach us many things."

"Your mother?"

"We never know her. Another mother raises us, but he's not our biological mother."

The word 'he' startles Sasuke, but he doesn't push the matter any further. Some things are better left unknown. That explains how the twin manages to accept his relationship with Naruto easily, though.

"Where do you live?"

"In a wood near Lightning Country. We live in a small house."

Silence hangs in the air for a while then. Sasuke tries to handle the situation correctly, Arashi tries to gauge his reaction and Sora simply wishes for nothing more than breaks out of the door. It is, in a way, a tense situation. One false move and the next second Sasuke can send them out the door and bolt it so that they can't come back in. Sasuke looks at them wearily: Arashi is too calm and collected, while Sora is merely avoiding him.

"Do you have other siblings?" he asks again.

"We do. Three of them."

"Where are they?"

"We don't know. I believe the time will come when all of us will together again, but our father said that we must learn through the good way here." Arashi explains, praying in her heart for no more questions will be asked.

"Okay," Sasuke says dismissively, but then he halts halfway and faces Arashi seriously again. "What's your father's name?"

Sora's eyes widens as he hears that question, and he rises up from his seat. Arashi looks at him and then she answers: "Sasuke san, you should've known that our father is a missing nin. By revealing his identity, then we are nothing more than trash. We can't say his name."

Sasuke sighs then. While Sora blatantly displaying nervousness upon the questions, Arashi keeps her calm easily as if she has thought about it many times before. He figures that Sora will be more willing to share bits of information, if he plays his cards right.

"Alright, I will ask no more. Both of you can start cleaning up and cooking for dinner. There is some food in the fridge." Sasuke collects his stack of papers then. "I'll be out, back in the morning."

*

The Fire perches himself on a high tree, silently examining his surrounding as he senses something disturbing - one of his own kinds had been woken up from its deep sleep. The occasionally rumbling of thunder sounds very annoying, and he knows better than to interpret it as ordinary nature sign. There shouldn't have been any thunder in this season, and certainly no living creature on this earth hosts enough chakra to make it. He nervously rubs his hand together. Certainly an element cannot feel nervous, but he has experienced so many feelings beyond that. Uchiha Itachi is somehow a kind master, and he's glad to serve him. The Fire has seen the Uchiha's personal reason even further than what he's willing to admit, and he finds that reason fascinating.

He stares at the cloudy sky and expands a pair of fiery wings on his back. His master is going to start the ritual soon. He doesn't like the idea of sharing his master with anyone else, moreover with the Water. Even since the beginning of civilization, they'd never been good friends. Will this century make any difference? Somehow he doubts that. Not to mention that attempt can be dangerous for his master, controlling the Water without an affinity to water element is a suicide mission. Nevertheless, Itachi insists and who he is to disobey his command? He just needs to protect him, that's all.

He flies down to an open clearing in the forest, brushes the edge of his wings to Kisame, who yelps in surprise and curse loudly. He smiles, the Uchiha group is so intriguing that he never grows tired of it. He waited for his master patiently, for the final step of acquiring the Water is just around the corner.


End file.
